ROTARIANS’ APPEAL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 644, 23 December 1932, Page 7

ROTARIANS’ APPEAL.

Good Response to Cover Cost of Hampers. £550 COLLECTED AT 3 P.M. Members of the Christchurch Rotary Club, and the numerous helpers enrolled, proved equally as efficient as street collectors this morning as they had on Wednesday evening as hamper packers. Public appreciation of the efforts of the club to provide some 1300 hampers of Christmas cheer to necessitous cases in the city was shown in a practical manner with a generous measure of support. The aim for today’s collection is £IOOO, and up to 1 p.m. the sum of £3OO had been received. With the total £550 at 3 p.m., the president of the Rotary Club (Dr H. G. Denham) said that the result? were to date not sufficiently large for them to dare put into operation the arrangements for supplying the supplementary list of 150 to 200 hampers after distributing the 1150 prepared. If the collection speeded up later in the afternoon and in the evening he felt sure that they would be able to provide for many of the 200 on the supplementary list. He added that the results were not quite up to those of last year, though much self-sacrifice was to be noticed among people who could ill afford to give. On the other hand some people who could Well afford to provide a fairly substantial donation gave very little. Three hundred collectors offered their services and a roster to cover all the prominent points of the city was drawn up. Collecting started at. 7.45 this morning and will continue until 10 p.m. The member in charge of the headquarters tent in Cathedral Square said that the public response was very good, though naturally the average donation was somewhat smaller this year. At the time he was speaking a drizzle was falling and those helping in the appeal were hoping hard that it would stop and not spoil the excellent chance of attaining the aim of £IOOO. In addition to the ordinary donations various helpful actions rewarded those conducting the appeal. One local school forwarded 16s, the result of carol singing by the children, and a taxi-driver who could not afford to give a monetary donation offered the use of his motor-car for two hours. Hampers (Packed on Trust. The hampers have not yet been paid for, having been packed on the trust that the people will pay for them through to-day’s street collection. The club went ahead with arrangements confident from past appeals that the public would back up a cause which will mean so much to mothers and children in the city and suburbs who otherwise -would face a dark and cheerless Christmas. Distribution of the hampers will begin at 8 a.m. to-morrow, and if to-day’s public support is sufficient the 1150 hampers already packed and some 150 in addition will be rushed free of charge to all quarters of the city and suburbs. The club thanks those who have sent in their donations ahead of “the day,” especially Mr T. Chapman, Mr and Mrs L. Russell (for cheque to cover full provision for two full-sized hampers), Mr Frank Egan, Anonymous (3), 8.N., Well wisher (Culverden), Mr Robinson, Mrs Garsham, Mr Jno. Smith, Mrs D. Rutherford, Mrs E. Barker, Swifts, Ltd., Sims, Cooper, Ltd., Mrs O. A. Bridgewater, Mr H. L. Bowker, Dr J. Macmillan Brown, Mr George Gould, Mr F. Munns and T. J. Edmonds, Ltd. The late Mr Edmonds was a liberal benefactor to the fund, as well as a helper, and the cheque received yesterday from his firm, shows that the interest of his family is still in the Rotary work.