LIVING TRIBUTE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21549, 31 October 1944, Page 2

LIVING TRIBUTE

HEALTH CAMP FUND RN.2.A.F. TRIBUTE GISBORNE BED ENDOWED In quest of a suitable form of memorial tribute to a deceased friend, two officers of the Royal New Zealand Air Force have endowed a memorial bed in the Gisborne district health camp as an expression of their regard in the conviction that for many years the sacrifice of their friend will have a living tribute. The officer whose death on operations is thus memorialised is the late Flying Officer J. J. Sheather. formerly of Tolaga Bay. It is regarded as especially fitting that the Gisborne district camp should have benefited by (he trust, fund created by his comrades, as the R.N.Z.A.F. has had a long wartime association with the site of the camp, which, in fact, was vacated for the use of the service. The camp has now been handed back to tlie health camp committee, and plans are being prepared for its further improvement, with a view to its all-year-round use on behalf of delicate* and debilitated children irrespective of race or creed, and irrespective also of the financial status of | their parents. It is intended to reopen the camp, with about 30 children, on November 7. and to proceed with the improvements during their occupancy of the buildings. A large proportion of the funds for conducting the camp comes from the sale of health stamps, and in this connection an effort is being made to improve the revenue from the current health-stamps campaign. The early days of the campaign were highly productive, but sales have since fallen off to a marked degree. and. a boost to interest in the effort is being organised.

For each course of six weeks. Ihe outlay to be faced by the committee is approximately £3OO. This money is expended on goods and services in the district, and, for staff expenses also incurred in Gisborne.