Help us build a home for Plunket

Hawke's Bay Today has launched a campaign to raise the final money needed to build a home for Plunket in our region.
Our target is $275,000 to ensure the new $1.2 million "one-stop Plunket-shop" can be built on land earmarked for the project in Onekawa.
The Build a Home for Plunket campaign kicks off today and we are appealing to individuals and businesses to get behind the cause and maybe even earn a place on the wall of honour when the complex is built later this year.
To kick-start the campaign, Hawke's Bay Today will hold a charity auction of canvas prints by our four talented photographers.
The January 18 auction features 15 fabulous 45cm x 30cm canvas prints, mounted at no charge by Rembrant Fine Arts of Napier. Tremains Real Estate principal Simon Tremain will auction the full-colour prints with all proceeds to the Plunket appeal. The photographic exhibition, organised by Hawke's Bay Today's Glenn Taylor, is on now at the Comunity Arts Centre, Russell St, Hastings.
The new 25-plus room Plunket centre in Napier will stand next to the Onekawa Aquatic Centre on land donated by the Napier City Council. It will be the first centre in New Zealand to house both Plunket and external service providers.The head of Plunket's fundraising team, Hannah Giddens, described the new service centre as a "one-stop-shop" for parents and families with young children.
"They can ring and make an appointment for any and everything that they may need. We will have family-friendly hours, including a late week night and a weekend morning to cater for working parents," she said.
The new centre will replace four Plunkets in the Napier region - Tamatea, Marewa, Napier Car Seat Rental, and Plunket Karitane Family Centre - to provide a more cost-effective and wide-reaching service.
Services will range from nursing, teaching and car seat rental, to a family-friendly cafe, op shop, sleeping rooms, and midwife and antenatal education.
Plunket provides an integral service to the community, not only providing health care and advice for our youngest citizens and their families, but also educating and supporting them, too.
The centre has an overall price tag of $1.2 million, but with donations from grants and trusts, Plunket needs just $275,000 by July to ensure the success of the project. $30,000 of the $275,000 needed has already been raised.
Hawke's Bay Today editor Antony Phillips said the Plunket cause deserved full community support and urged readers to donate and to attend the charity auction.
INFO
The Hawke's Bay Today Build a Home for Plunket auction will be held at the Community Arts Centre on Russell Street, Hastings, at 5.30pm on January 18.
* Donation buckets will be at the front counters of Hawke's Bay Today offices in Napier and Hastings from Monday.
* To register your business' interest and fundraising idea, phone Hannah Giddens on (06) 870 5008.