Almost $12,000 from appeal

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 1

Almost $12,000 from appeal

The street day appeal in Christchurch yesterday for the Marylands residential school for the retarded, at Halswell, is expected to exceed $12,000. When counting finished last night $11,927 had been counted, with more to come.

Brother J. Moloney, the Prior at Marylands, said that public response to the appeal had been tremendous and it would mean that the home should be able to end the year without a great debt.

About 800 collectors were out in the city and suburbs by 7.15 a.m., for the first street collection held for the

home since it opened 17 years ago. One of the best individual collections was that of a third-form schoolboy, William McDonald, who brought in $lll. He collected in the city area from 7.40 a.m. until 9 p.m., with a short break for a cup of tea and a biscuit. By 10 a.m. the collectors had used ail the 50,000 tickets printed for donors, and another 100,000 were printed. At that time, money received in the collection boxes included at least one $lO note and a lot of $5 notes. “The people of greater Christchurch have shown in no uncertain terms, and in the most practical way. that they support the work being done by the Brothers of St John of God,” said the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr N. G. Pickering) last evening.

“It is now very evident that the Government must, at the Cabinet meeting on Monday, make proper provision through State aid so that the work at Marylands can be continued on a sound financial basis,” said Mr Pickering, who offered the street day appeal as a means of keeping Marylands open over the Christmas-New Year holidays. Donations can still be sent to the Marylands Appeal, P.O. Box 1659, Christchurch. PRAISE BY PARENTS Appreciation of the work done by Marylands has been expressed by a Tauranga couple whose boy has shown considerable improvement since attending the school this year. The boy’s father said that he and his wife wished to express their appreciation for

what had been done for the boy, who was mentally retarded and an epileptic. Before going to Marylands he had spent six years in special classes at two primary schools, three years in normal classes, where he had been treated as just another “naughty little boy,” and had also spent time in two public hospitals and had been a patient in a psychiatric hospital. The father said the boy could dress and bath himself since being at Marylands and could travel by air on his own.

“While we are not wealthy people, by careful budgeting we can meet the school fees and extras, and when one sees an improvement we feel that it is money well spent”