Volunteers Are Worth More Than A Million

Media Release

5 December 2003

Volunteers Are Worth More Than A Million

Plunket president, Kaye Crowther, knows that without the help of volunteers, New Zealand families would struggle to cope with the demands of parenthood and child health.

On International Volunteer Day (subs 5 December), she paid tribute to the thousands of volunteers from Plunket and collectors from many other voluntary organisations and service clubs who helped with Plunket's annual appeal.

The 2003 appeal, which took place from 6 - 13 October, has reached $1,015,299, and with final donations, is expected to match last year's total of $1.1 million.

Mrs Crowther said the total was a combination of the house-to-house and postal appeals, telephone donation line and Woolworths and Foodtown checkout donations.

"This is a magnificent effort and we are extremely grateful to the public for dipping into their pockets to support Plunket. There seem to be more and more charities and appeals that are also deserving of support, we are pleased that Plunket is still valued by the public.

"Running an appeal is incredibly hard work and we are grateful to Plunket and service club volunteers and our supportive corporate sponsors, many of whom take to the streets collecting alongside our volunteers.

"Nearly all of the 20,000 volunteers who collected are Plunket babies, doing their bit to help the current generation of Plunket babies. We deeply appreciate their help - we couldn't manage without them."

Mrs Crowther said that a large proportion of the money collected in a community stays in that community and helps support the provision of the well child health checks Plunket delivers. It also allows additional services to be provided locally, including car seat rental schemes, antenatal and parenting education support programmes, parent support groups, toy libraries, playgroups and coffee mornings.

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