Poppy fund benefits local families

Wanganui RSA welfare officer Robbie Robertson says the poppy fund helps local veterans and their families with essential costs. Photo Bevan Conley.

Proceeds from the purchase of Anzac poppies from street collectors in Whanganui this Friday and Saturday will go directly to benefit local veterans and their families.

Returned Services Association welfare officer for Whanganui and South Taranaki, Robbie Robertson says the fund is mainly distributed for help with glasses, dental treatments and hearing aids.

Whanganui East resident, Zona Carthy says she is very grateful to the local poppy fund for helping with half the cost of her new hearing aids.

Mrs Carthy 95, says her daughter who worked for the Motueka branch of RSA, told her she may be eligible for help from the fund.

"I have had one hearing aid for many years and I thought I might need a new one but when I was told that I needed two and they would cost almost $4000, I was shocked.

"When I got my first hearing aid 50 years ago, it cost $100."

Being the widow of WWII veteran Lionel Carthy who died in 1992, makes Mrs Carthy eligible for support from the fund.

"We moved to this house when we married 72 years ago," she says.

"I had just spent a lot of my savings on having exterior and interior painting done so I was very worried about the cost of the hearing aids."

Mr Robertson arranged for half the cost to be paid from the poppy fund and Mrs Carthy now has the two new devices which she says are working well.

"I am delighted with the support and I think it is wonderful for people to know that the money they donate goes to help local war veterans and their families," she says.

Mrs Carthy makes 3-dimensional greeting cards with a group that come to her house each week.

"I made one with a red poppy to send as a thank-you card to the RSA."

Zona Carthy says her new hearing aids would have been unafforadable without help from the poppy fund. Photo Bevan Conley.

Mr Robertson says hearing aids are by far the most expensive things that veteran families need help with.

"The minimum cost for hearing aids is around $4,000.

"The local poppy appeal usually brings in around $18,000 each year," he says.

He says veterans can apply for assistance from the Ministry of Health's hearing aid subsidy scheme which provides up to $511.11 per hearing aid.

"Our members often need support to apply for assistance from Work and Income and I spend quite a lot of time providing that support.

"There is often a lack of clarity about entitlements."

This year marks the 95th which of the annual poppy appeal which enables the RSA to support around 41,000 veterans - the most at any time since the end of the Second World War - and their families nationally.

It is New Zealand's oldest continuously run appeal.

As well as the street collections, donations can be made at ANZ branches and New Zealand Post branches and this weekend at Bunnings Warehouse branches.

Z service stations are also offering special car poppies for sale.