‘‘Keep the change’’ donations from the Farmers carpark in Sophia St are set to provide Christmas dinner for up to 300 Timaruvians this year.
For more than 30 years the Sophia St Car Park Charitable Trust has run the Farmers carpark under contract with the Timaru District Council.
The carpark is voluntarily manned by members of the Midland District Masonic Lodges and through ‘‘keep the change’’ donations from the public when paying their parking fare, the trust provides scholarships and grants to many different individuals and organisations around the district.
This year the trust has granted $4000 to the Timaru Community Christmas Dinner to cover the cost of the meals, presents for children and hire of the Caroline Bay Hall.
Trust chairman Paul Johnston said he had known the dinner’s organiser Kiel Waite for many years and knew it was an important project to get behind.
‘‘I went to my trustees and said, ‘what do you think?’. They all thought it was a bloody good idea, so we said we’d pay for it this year.
‘‘[Kiel’s] giving up his Christmas Day, they do it all for free, so we just want to do our bit and give back to them.’’
He said the trust were only able to do what they do thanks to the generosity of the motoring public.
‘‘People are so generous. We get people give us 20 bucks for a $1.20 or $1.80 fare and they say keep it.’’
Mr Waite said he loved being able to give back to the community and the dinner was something that was very much needed at Christmas time.
‘‘We’ve noticed over the last couple of years, there’s more and more elderly people at home. So we’ve approached Age Concern, and always have tables for them. Lots of people just turn up on the day, too, so it’s good.
‘‘Just short of 150 people have already booked in for this year and we are capped at 300.’’
He said without the support from the likes of the Sophia St Car Park Charitable Trust and other businesses and service clubs many events like the Christmas dinner would not be possible.
‘‘[The support] is huge. It’s the only way non-profit groups are able to make things like this happen.
‘‘It’s very expensive to feed 300 people but we always get good responses from businesses and service clubs even though they themselves have been doing it tough over the last couple of years. They do a lot in our community.
‘‘We are very fortunate and thankful to get the support we do.’’
They were always looking for more volunteers to help out on the day, he said.
‘‘We’ve got a few volunteers already but we can always find a job for someone. There is always something to do, like washing dishes, helping in the kitchen or serving food.
‘‘We don’t want to turn anyone away who wants to help, I want it to be open to anyone. So just Joe blogs on the street can go, ‘I’m not doing much, I want to give back at Christmas, let’s join and help out’.
‘‘Lots of volunteers keep coming back and they’ve been doing it for such a long time.’’
Anyone wishing to inquire about volunteering, book a spot or find out more about the dinner can contact Mr Waite at timaruchristmasdinner@gmail.com or by visiting the Timaru Community Christmas Dinner Facebook page.
