Robert Webb, Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre manager, Northland regional councillor John Bain, Rylee King, 7, and Georgie King, 5. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Robert Webb, Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre manager, Northland regional councillor John Bain, Rylee King, 7, and Georgie King, 5. Photo / Michael Cunningham
The King sisters have been putting aside their pocket money and asking for help from friends and family to raise money to replace a lawnmower stolen from a Whangarei bird shelter.
Rylee King, 7, and Georgie, 5, love all animals so when they heard thieves had ripped away a pieceof fibrolite and made off with the Native Bird Recovery Centre's $800 mower last month they wanted to help.
The sisters put away their own pocket money and appealed for donations so they could raise the funds to replace the mower. On Wednesday they had raised about $700 and Northland regional councillor John Bain topped it up to $800.
"These two little ones here have been fabulous. When you see little ones doing positive things it's just great. These two have raised funds for us before. They just do it off their own bat, it's neat," said centre manager Robert Webb.
The girls' mother, Amy King, said her two daughters had been saving up to buy a cockatiel and a guinea pig but decided they wanted to use that money to help Mr Webb get a new mower.
"We think birds are cool and I like the bird recovery centre," said Rylee.
As the King girls handed over the jars of money to Mr Webb yesterday, Georgie said: "Here, now you can pay for the lawn mower."
While there, the girls also got to see one of the world's largest birds - a wandering albatross weighing 6kg with a wingspan of 2.5 metres that was found on Ninety Mile Beach on Sunday. Wandering albatross are known to circumnavigate the Southern Ocean three times - covering more than 120,000km in a year.
