The Vintners' Lunch event is Te Omanga Hospice's biggest annual fundraiser. This is the first time that we, as a club, have assisted the Hospice with this event. Saturday was setting tables and decorating the venue in preparation for the big day on Sunday. We then returned late on Sunday afternoon to assist with packing everything away.
Over time, we have given a helping hand to the hospice in a variety of ways and this was another opportunity to build on the relationship that we have developed with them.
The following is an extract from the thank you note the club received from Rebecca Routhan, Community and Events Programme Manager at Te Omanga Hospice -
"Kia ora Paul and Eastern Hutt Rotary Vintners’ Lunch volunteers, a HUGE thank you from us at Te Omanga Hospice for helping us out with our largest event of the year – Vintners’ Lunch Spring Splendour. We are really pleased (and relieved) that the event went so well. Feedback from guests so far has been really positive. We hope you enjoyed helping us.
I am excited to announce that we have raised an incredible $251,274. This will go a long way towards helping our patients and their families who need palliative care and support. We have raised more than last year so we are blown away, especially given the economic times.
Having you on board as volunteers meant we were able to minimise our expenses. It was fabulous to have a big crew from Rotary come along. It made a huge difference to us.
Set up volunteers – that was a huge task wasn’t it! As we did the theming ourselves this year it did require extra set up tasks. All the frustration detangling wisteria was worth it though – self theming saved us thousands of dollars. Everybody setting up was so calm and willing. Whether you were able to help us for an hour or all day, you were so appreciated.
Pack down volunteers – we couldn’t have done it without you! To have a fresh set of people to help us for this was absolutely invaluable. The way you just got on with the job without a fuss was fantastic.
Thanks so much and I look forward to working with you all again."
