The day after the EQ, church leadership gathered in order to plan our response. By Thursday we'd opened part of our building, without power, water or sewage, as a community hub. People started to come with food and water and then the locals started coming. Trucks of food started arriving, then helecopters, MP's, the mayor, free food vendors, information and support. Volunteers came from around the country to help people in the community - digging silt, weatherproofing homes, visiting the vulnerable. It became so big, we had to open the school hall too, the road got closed off to traffic and the care centre became the main community facility. James & Amy were key leaders in the Centre. For a short video of what our church was doing, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79UXS1dE2_s
James' work were then faced with the need for childcare - the immediate closure of all local schools, and the unknown date of their reopening. As a local trusted agency that provides children and youth activities, we were approached by local parent asking if we were going to offer anything while the schools were closed. With discussions with Central New Brighton School and some key leaders and staff, we put together a fun childrens programme, on school grounds from Monday 28th Feb. Our daily programme ran for 11 days, and over 1500 children signed in! All this was done with a youthwork staff team of 4 paid staff, 12 key volunteers and over 70 volunteers, who gave of their time setting up, running sports, crafts, painting faces, making jewellery, looking after bouncy castles, cooking sausages, entertaining, signing children in, chatting to parents and families and bringing smiles, laughter, and hope back into a scared community. We had different entertainers each day, including people who donated their time for free from all over the country! We had very positive feedback from parents, children and the community, and got numerous thank you letters, and some good media coverage, including Newspaper articles, and TV Cameras visited us too! See this newspaper article:
Other ways we responded included schools fun days, silt shifting, care in the community, free family holidays, free football festival, free New Brighton day, free library holiday activities, greater school care + more info can be found on our website: http://www.yat.org.nz/
For a short video of what our church was doing, click here:
