$16,000 raised for cyclone-hit neighbours

The Taupō District community has shown its generosity through donating to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help some of our neighbours in Hawke’s Bay deal with the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Taupō District Mayor David Trewavas says thanks to the many generous donations from the community, more than $16,000 has been raised for the heavily impacted community in the Wairoa District.

“Thank you to everyone who donated to the Taupō District Mayoral Relief Fund to help our neighbours in the Hawke’s Bay region,” he says.

“Lots of communities suffered great loss during and after the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. People were so generous with supporting this fund and we are delighted to assist in the recovery of the Wairoa District community.

“Wairoa District Mayor Craig Little was over the moon when I told him our community had raised more than $16,000 and he says it will be put towards something that the town can look forward to and something we can all visit once they are back on their feet.”

Mayor Little says the people of Wairoa are “delighted to receive such a wonderful donation”.

“As the clean-up from Cyclone Gabrielle continues, we are working to get our district back to some sort of normality,” he says.

“For anyone who has visited or passed through Wairoa, you will have seen our amazing playground by the river - as you can imagine this is currently in a terrible state. We would like to invest your generous donation towards fixing the playground for our mokopuna and installing a water feature so everyone can visit and see it.

“It’s great that local government can look after each other. Please pass on our gratitude to your community for this wonderful donation, that will help us immensely.”