Good Samaritans Rise Up for Edgecumbe

Juhstice Allen, Wiremu Tuporo, Bernie Allen, Tony Welch, Graham Holmes and Martin Buchanan. Photos and Video: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

Rise Up Tauranga's first truckload of furniture for Edgecumbe residents arrived in Whakatane on Friday.

Claire Pye, who manages the Bay of Plenty District Health Board funded community service Pou Whaakaro, was full of praise for the good quality furniture collected from Tauranga residents and delivered by Modern Office trucks.

'Thank you so much for the amazing donations yesterday and for the team who brought the furniture over. We were really pleased with the quality of the furniture sent.

'We had three families in who had lost everything in the floods and went away with many great goods to help them set up. They were so grateful and humbled by the generosity of the people of Tauranga. Please pass ours and their appreciation on.”

There are 560 homes in Edgecumbe which experienced heavy flooding in early April. Fourteen homes are condemned and 237 are uninhabitable for weeks, maybe months.

Once dropped off to the Cargo Shed on Dive Crescent in Tauranga, the furniture will be stored in Whakatane while Edgecumbe residents wait to move back into their homes.

Wiremu Tuporo and Juhstice Allen from Modern Office

The Cargo Shed is open daily from Monday to Saturday until the end of May from 11am–3pm, with volunteers from Bethlehem Te Puna Lions helping people unload and bring in their furniture.

So far, in just five days, over 60 homes in Tauranga have dropped off lounge suites, tables, chairs, beds and many household items.

For those who can't bring in their own furniture, a furniture pick up has been organised with Modern Office providing two trucks, staff and three full days to go and collect from houses from Te Puna to Papamoa.

In just a few days more than 50 requests for pickups have come in, and the furniture from the first day was delivered straight to Whakatane.

There was so much furniture to pick up from each home that many residents on the first schedule had to wait until another day to have their furniture collected.

Rise Up Tauranga is asking for volunteers from businesses, churches and organisations with trucks, trailers and time on their hands to form teams during May to go out for four hours and help pick up the furniture and bring it into The Cargo Shed

For more details, visit www.facebook.com/RiseUpTauranga, email rosalie@topshelfdesign.com or text mobile 022 658 1458.

Martin Buchanan from Bethlehem Te Puna Lions

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