19 December 2016

The Great NZ Jingle-Jam-Along – Christmas carols NZ style, bringing Summer Wonderland to Re:Start Mall (Fundraiser for Help for the Homeless)

This Friday from 5pm to 6pm everyone is welcome to join in the very first Great NZ Jingle-Jam-Along! Come and bring your ukeleles, jingle bells, drums and bums, and vocal trumpets! Anything you can get your hands on to play along with ten of your favourite upbeat Christmas tunes for the fun of making music together and getting your jingle jam on!

The Great New Zealand Jingle-Jam-Along is a fundraiser for Christchurch homeless, organised by Hannah Airey (Director of Workplace Wellbeing and Wellbeing Activist for Gap Filler Trust) and Lisa Tui (Director of SingOut), with Laura Tomlin (Emeralds and Greenstone).

Hannah Airey recently commented on a friend’s Facebook page about a clip where a few people sat down with a homeless person and started busking to raise some money for him. It struck a chord with her, having been in a similar situation. Airey says “You know when you see a clip on Facebook and it resonates with you? Well I thought maybe I could possibly hold a beat whilst other friends played music and sang and the money collected could go to the homeless. My work takes me down many paths as has my life and I decided to put it out there and do a local rendition. The immediate effect was telling as many friends wanted to be involved. This is a result of kind, compassionate, open hearted friends and friends not yet met who would like to come together and raise money for a very worthy cause. Homeless people are still people. Take away our masks, our circumstances and our stories, and we are all the same.”

Airey works regularly for support groups in mental health and drug and addiction programmes, facilitating wellbeing workshops. Through her work with Gap Filler Trust she is well aware of the plight of homeless people who often frequent the sites where Gap Filler projects are installed. “It’s pretty cool, we have a number of folk who become almost custodians of some of the projects and let us know if things need fixing.”

Proceeds will go to an organisation called “Help for the Homeless”. “These people do the most incredible things. Their motto is 'Help not Hoops', so let's help!” says Airey.

Further information about Help for the Homeless can be found on https://www.facebook.com/HelpfortheHomelessChristchurch/

A $5 contribution is asked from those who would like to join in the jam, if they can afford it. Those watching or choosing to join in on the day, please give a koha.

When: Friday, 23 December 2016
Time: 5.00-6pm
Where: ReStart Mall forecourt

“Elf” the movie will be screened from 6.30pm in the same area and there are food caravans on site from 4.30pm. What a fantastic way to support our central city on so many levels, this event is also for all ages.

You can find out more and download and print the song list from our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheGreatNZJingleJamAlong. Join the event listed on this page and share it with your friends.

If you can't make it on the 23 December, please donate to our Givealittle page, if you can. (https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/thegreatnzjingle-jam-along)

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