Builders do a very good deed

Five-year old Maddie Gray with Bill, a rescue puppy, and her dad Stephen, owner of Bay of Islands ITM, at Saturday's charity build for Bay of Islands Animal Rescue. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A group of Far North builders banded together on Saturday 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, and 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 one day was ''a big mission," but the organisation needed a bit of help.

"They don't have a lot of funds, so we offered our services," he said.

Project co-ordinator Sean McNulty, an ITM sales manager, said his family had fostered 26 rescue dogs so far this 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.

Anything not donated by suppliers had been provided by Bay of Islands ITM, owner Stephen Gray said.

''There are plenty of good causes out there, but this is one where we could make a genuine difference," he said.

Under normal circumstances he estimated the office would have cost around $25,000 to build.

It is due to be delivered to the charity's property today, also without charge.

Bay of Islands Animal Rescue is an independent group established in 2016 by Kawakawa woman Summer Johnson. Since then it has rescued, fostered and rehomed thousands of animals, mostly dogs, but also horses, cats, pigs, and anything else that needs help.

In August alone the group rescued 131 dogs, 76 of which went to Auckland for rehoming, while 55 are in foster homes in Northland.