Awapuni Rotary Club in Palmerston North donates $100,000 to charity

Awapuni Rotarian Venky Kannan (left) with Lanaco managing director Nick Davenport and boxes of masks ready to be sent to Fiji. Photo / Supplied

The Awapuni Rotary Club has given $100,000 to projects benefitting sick children and the preservation of industrial history.

Plus, as was revealed at its changeover meeting last week, the club has facilitated the donation of N95-standard masks to Fiji.

Rotary clubs in the lower North Island are raising money for a new Wellington Regional Children's Hospital and the Awapuni club presented Wellington Hospitals Foundation chairman Bill Day with $50,000.

Day said Rotary clubs were raising $400,000-plus to fit out two whānau rooms at the hospital.

Accepting $50,000 on behalf of the Hoffman Kiln Trust, trustee Cliff Wilson said it was the best preserved Hoffman-style kiln in Australasia. It is 110 to 115 years old and one of Palmerston North's unknown treasures.

The money will be used to make the Featherston St kiln more accessible to the city.

Mayor Grant Smith said the kiln was a gem that could have been lost but was now "very secure" for the city.

Incoming president Fraser Bell described Awapuni Rotary as "the little club that could".

The new president of Awapuni Rotary Club is Fraser Bell. Photo / Judith Lacy

Porirua Rotarian Adrienne Murray outlined how the distribution of 52,000 masks to Fiji came about. She does some work for Auckland company Lanaco, which didn't sell as many of its masks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand as it thought.

She asked Lanaco managing director Nick Davenport if he would donate them to Fijians in need. Using Awapuni Rotarian Venky Kannan's networks the deal was done and the masks, made from New Zealand wool, have arrived in Fiji for Rotarians there to distribute.

Davenport told the Guardian a number of Lanaco's staff have had families directly and severely affected by Covid in New Zealand and other parts of the world.

"This created the pathway for us to go some way to making a positive contribution, which has meaning for our dedicated team of mask makers."

Last year, Lanaco built a dedicated mask and respirator manufacturing capability to create supply chain independence for New Zealand.

"This plant makes the unique New Zealand wool-based filter technology called HELIX which goes in to every mask and filter we make, and has created an export opportunity to take NZ products based on NZ agriculture and science to the world."

Rodney Wong, MC for the night, said the mask project was a great example of how Rotary works in terms of networks.

Wrapping up the meeting, Wong quipped "we've given away all the parking money".

First to grasp the significance of the comment was the mayor, who asked "is that a little dig?"