The men behind keeping so many Timaru fires burning were treated to a morning tea to thank them for their continued hard work in keeping local homes warm this winter.
Timaru Rotary Club members have been officially running the firewood project for a little over five years, and have played a big part ensuring families in need have access to free firewood whenever they need it.
Timaru Rotary Club firewood project co-ordinator Tony Henderson said members picked up timber offcuts every Wednesday morning from a factory in Redruth.
‘‘We bring it down to the port, in various lengths and widths, and we cut it up, put it into bags and stockpile it over the summer to save it for those colder months.
‘‘We are just doing our bit to fill a basic need in the community.’’
Each week the club needed five or six members to help with the work.
‘‘We have a group of about 12 that will fill the roles as they are needed. People come and go as they are able to, but everyone really is just keen to do their bit and help out.’’
Last year, it delivered about 1400 bags of firewood and over 100 boxes full of kindling.
He knew it was on to a good thing with the project, but the club did not want to be the one to decide who truly needed it, Mr Henderson said.
‘‘I rang about four different places and it just started slowly but it has just built and built.’’
Initially, the Salvation Army was the place that would allocate the wood, but due to a personnel change, Family Works South Canterbury (Presbyterian Support South Canterbury) became the main agent that received the firewood and organised getting it to families that needed it, he said.
Family Works intake service worker and firewood co-ordinator Christine Liggett said it would have families come to it needing warmth in their house but not having the funds to buy firewood.
‘‘We collect names and addresses, then I co-ordinate with Tony, purely provide them with the addresses and no questions asked. They do the deliveries.
‘‘Whenever we ask Tony and the team to help out, there is never any question that they won’t. They’re really good to work with and they make a huge difference for many families in Timaru.’’
Family Works general manager Deidre Dahlberg said use of the service had increased rapidly.
‘‘Alongside our food delivery service and food parcels, the firewood service is heavily used and, like most of our services, has really increased in the last year or so.’’
Mrs Liggett said having access to free firewood made a big difference for the families who received it.
‘‘I’ve had people say to me, it means they don’t have to go to bed so early to keep warm and the family can actually stay up in the lounge together a bit longer — it just makes such a huge difference.’’
Mrs Dahlberg said Family Works had first put on the morning tea last year and were happy to do so again this year.
‘‘We just want to show our appreciation, find out what else also we can do, what else we can work together on and just report back to the people that are making a big difference for our clients and for people out there that just need a bit of help.
‘‘It’s just about the community working together. We just want to recognise and show our support to Timaru Rotary, and Family Works are really grateful for the work they are doing.’’
