ROTARY CLUB PACKERS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21355, 24 December 1934, Page 14

ROTARY CLUB PACKERS

HAMPERS FOR NEEDY

FAMILIES DISPLAY OF ENERGY ON A WARM AFTERNOON There is no amateur clumsiness in the packing methods of Christchurch Rotarians. On Saturday they were faced with the task of making up 1158 hampers to be distributed to-day among needy families in the city, the contents of the hampers having been purchased from the proceeds of the Rotary Club's Christmas appeal. Many members of the club worked during the whole of Saturday afternoon, packing hampers, tying hampers, and stacking the finished bundles of Christmas cheer ready for transport. The work was well organised. Proverbs contradict one another and on Saturday it was not so much a case of "too many cooks" as of "many hands make light work." The chain-system which has proved its efficiency in past years worked like a well-oiled machine and nobody seemed to be in the way. •

In the store-room where the packing was being done the various Christmas necessities were piled in convenient rows. Before each pile shirt-sleeved figures stood, reaching for a packet of tea, a pound of butter, or whatever commodity happened to be their particular care. One link in the chain was concerned with plum puddings, neatly boxed, another with tins of jam, another with raisins, and so on down the line. At the end the experts with string sat together tying busily. Beside them, at the post of tally-clerk, two others swung the bags on to the slide which took them below to the lower floor.

The packing started not long after 2 o'clock, and it was expected to continue until 6 in the evening. But this type of work has a spirit behind it which could make even longer hours a pleasure. In some respects it is the hardest part of the Christmas appeal; though the street collection requires considerable sacrifice of time and trouble, four hours' packing on a warm Saturday afternoon is not often undertaken purely for the pleasure to be derived from it. There were probably a few aching backs at the end of the day, but those would be well compensated for by the comfortable sensation of a duty done.

After the packing there is the distribution, completing the annual good deed of the Rotary Club. This morning the hampers are to be loaded on to cars and lorries lent for the occasion, and at 8 o'clock the Christmas delivery will begin. Careful provision has been made to sec that no family will be overlooked and that none receives a double issue. In addition to the hampers themselves many joints of meat will be distributed, a number of sheep having been sent from the Hawarden district. The sheep were slaughtered on Saturday and will be cut up for distribution to-day.