Support for support

Press, 19 February 1988, Page 19

Support for support

Tomorrow Hagley Park will host the second Red Cross Summer Carnival. The Red Cross hopes to raise about $20,000 from it — money desperately needed to keep the organisation up and running in 1988.

Each year the Red Cross in North Canterbury needs just under $1 million to pay their general expenses. Although about half of this comes in through their appeals, there is still much work to do to make up the shortfall.

The 65 North Canterbury branches make independent fundraising efforts, and the region’s central office runs an opportunity shop and regular garage sales — anything to raise extra

money. But according to Mr Ken Ward, the executive director of the North Canterbury centre, that is a task which is becoming more and more difficult.

Necessity being the mother of invention, the centre came up with the idea • of the carnival, which they hope gives the public a day of fun in return for their money. The money raised tomorrow will go into three main areas: the health programme, which uses trained nurses to teach first aid to primary schools, industry and the general public; the youth programme, which uses two full-time youth officers to go around schools developing students’ awareness of the

wider international community and the basics of international humanitarian law; and the emergency relief team, who w’ork with Search and Rescue and Civil Defence to provide help in accidents or natural disasters.

“There is a public expectation that Red Cross will turn up whenever anything goes wrong. But few people are prepared to pay for the service,” says Ken Ward. “We do get donations, but they’re rarely enough to cover the cost of an operation. “We’re just saying that a few times a year we’d like the support of Christchurch in return for our support. Tomorrow is one of those times. “The Summer Carnival is also a fun way to do it.”