Help arrives for Christmas dinner

NATASHA MARTIN/ Fairfax NZ

GOODWILL: 101 Mental Wellness Drop-in Centre staff, from left, Lou Adams, Mark Bourassa and John Fallon, discuss their options after agreeing to host this year’s Timaru Community Christmas Dinner. Now they just need help from the community to make it happen.

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Timaru's Community Christmas Dinner is back on following an overwhelming response from volunteers wanting to help.

Staff at 101, the Mental Wellness Drop-in Centre, have received a flood of support after announcing they wanted to host this year's event.

Jericho Road Charitable Trust has hosted a Christmas dinner for the past four years, with the help of 30 volunteers and 12 key people to co-ordinate the day in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

However, this time around they struggled to get the support needed so decided last month to cancel their event.

Since the announcement, 101's Mark Bourassants, John Fallon and Lou Adams have been working tirelessly to recruit helpers and apply for grants to ensure the popular event can still go ahead.

Their calls have been answered, Mr Bourassa said.

''The response has been phenomenal - people have just been coming out of the woodwork.''

He said at least $1200 in donations was given to the cause yesterday and people had offered to help on the day.

101 staff are in talks with other groups who also want to help make the day a success. They will meet today to work on the finer details.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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