Give More to Mau TODAY – Ali Mau Appeals for Christmas Gifts for Tornado Victims

TVNZ’s Ali Mau and her partner Karleen Edmonds are appealing for Christmas presents for the families affected by the recent Hobsonville Tornado.

Ali and Karleen will be at Auckland Sailing Club, 10 Tamaki Drive, Orakei, today Tuesday December 18 from 3pm until 6pm, accepting donations of Christmas gifts for boys, girls, mums, dads and families.

“We are asking people to donate gifts to the families whose homes have been wrecked by the tornado and for whom Christmas Day would otherwise not be a very happy one,” says Ali. “After the tornado my partner Karleen and I were watching video on the net of the devastation, and saw an interview with Claudine Gilles, a local who had just put up her Christmas tree that morning as a surprise for her kids, and was now standing in ankle deep water with rain pouring in through her ceiling.

“It occurred to us that even if every family was fully insured they’d never get things sorted by Christmas Day, so we needed to do something to help.”
Ali and Karleen have been busy on Twitter and the radio publicising their appeal and have obtained the support of some high profile organisations.

“We knew that collection would be the easy part, but fair and equitable distribution is much harder to organise. After a bit of a ring around we are thrilled to have the full support of Civil Defence, who has agreed to identify and pass on details of the families in need and the ages of their children. City Mission has agreed to distribute the gifts, as they have systems in place for this. AA Insurance has offered help as well, including transport for all the donated gifts.”

“We then needed a central location for people to drop off gifts, preferably with lots of parking and rain cover if necessary – Auckland Sailing Club has kindly offered us its premises.”

How to donate a gift:

Bring your gift to Auckland Sailing Club, Tamaki Drive, Orakei, today Tuesday December 18 between 3pm and 6pm
There is plenty of parking and if it’s dry weather you’ll just be able to drive in, drop off your gift and drive out again. If it’s wet you’ll find us upstairs in the clubhouse.
There’s no need to wrap the presents (in fact it’s easier if we do that), we are asking people to just pick up an extra little something when you’re doing the Christmas shopping if you can. No need to spend a lot of money either.

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