Bay of Islands/Far North Certified Builders president Mark Todd, left, and Russell builder Matt Hatchard work on a charity build for Bay of Islands Animal Rescue. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Bay of Islands/Far North Certified Builders president Mark Todd, left, and Russell builder Matt Hatchard work on a charity build for Bay of Islands Animal Rescue. Photo / Peter de Graaf
A group of Northland builders have banded together to build an office for a cash-strapped animal charity in one day.
The builders, all members of the Bay of Islands/Far North branch of New Zealand Certified Builders, got to work at Bay of Islands ITM at Waipapa at 8am on Saturday.
By 6pm the 6.4m x 3m fully insulated and wired office was ready to be delivered to Bay of Islands Animal Rescue.
NZCB branch president Mark Todd, from Kerikeri, said building the office from scratch in a day was ''a big mission''.
''But the organisation needs a bit of help. They don't have a lot of funds so we offered our services.''
Five-year old Maddie Gray with Bill, a rescue puppy, and her dad Stephen, owner of Bay of Islands ITM, during a charity build for Bay of Islands Animal Rescue. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Project co-ordinator Sean McNulty, an ITM sales manager, said his family had fostered 26 rescue dogs this so far year and knew the charity had been gifted some land near Moerewa.
''We saw a need for them to have a base so we approached ITM and Certified Builders with the idea of building an office,'' he said.
The build was to have happened two months ago but was held up by Covid.
Other firms came to the party with, for example, Bay Windows donating windows and First For Electrical donating and installing all electrical fittings.
Russell builder Matt Hatchard works on an office for Bay of Islands Animal Rescue. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Anything not donated by suppliers had been provided by Bay of Islands ITM, owner Stephen Gray said.
''There's plenty of good causes out there but this is one where we could make a genuine difference.''
He estimated the office would have cost around $25,000 to build under normal circumstances.
It is due to be delivered to the charity's property on Thursday, also without charge.
Bay of Islands Animal Rescue is an independent group started in 2016 by Summer Johnson of Kawakawa.
Since then the group has rescued, fostered and rehomed thousands of animals, mostly dogs but also horses, cats, pigs and anything else that needs help.
In August alone they rescued 131 dogs, 76 of which went to Auckland for rehoming, while 55 are in foster homes in Northland.
