All news & stories

It’s National Volunteer week and we are incredibly fortunate to have an extraordinary family of more than 450 volunteers, who generously choose to gift their time and talents to help our hospitals every week.  Huge aroha and thanks to them all!  This week we’d love to introduce a few of them.

We have amazing teams of volunteer knitters, like Raewyn, who spend many hours handcrafting beautiful items to be gifted or sold through the Foundation shop.  Raewyn observed recently that, “In these pandemic times there’s been a move from everyone to get back to some basic life skills – home cooking, gardening and all sorts of DIY. Talents such as knitting are being seen as increasingly valuable.”

As well as knitting, Raewyn also volunteers her time every week to help process the many bundles of beautiful items that we receive every day.  It’s a big job for Raewyn and the small team, as they ensure that every tiny bootie, every beanie and every lovingly crafted item is carefully received, logged, packed and distributed.

And it’s not only knitwear, there’s also a wide range of other items needed by our hospitals and made by our volunteer teams that also need sorting.  These include care packs containing soap and other personal items for patients admitted unexpectedly, little items for the mortuary, heart pillows, incubator covers, quilts, heart monitor pouches, twiddle muffs for elderly patients suffering dementia, sheets and much more.  “There’s a band of very dedicated craftspeople who generously donate their time and talents, and sometimes their own materials to make these items.  I like to hope that receiving the gift of a handcrafted item is touching for those who receive them.”   Huge thanks to Raewyn and all our volunteer knitters and sewers.

He aha te mea nui o te Ao?  He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world?  It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.   Interested in volunteering with us?  See here for more details.