After a few weeks settling in with her new daughter, Siena -- now 2 -- Mrs Howard decided her feelings were too strong to ignore and she started calling on friends and family to donate baby gear to pass on to needy parents.
"We had a lot of new mums say things like: 'Oh, I've got so many brand new things my baby couldn't even fit because they were too big but nowhere to pass it on to.'
"We started getting clothes, bedding, nursery furniture, toys and blankets. People donated things every day and we'd sort them out and deliver them on Saturdays."
Mrs Howard, who lived in Grey Lynn at the time, drove to Middlemore Hospital and later other birthing units around South Auckland to pass on baby gear for families who needed it.
Her initiative became so popular that she has set up a not-for-profit organisation, Littlemore, and now has several volunteers who help to sort things and deliver them.
Over the past two years they have received more than 500 donations from around New Zealand and have passed on 1200 bags of clothing, 59 cots, almost 700 bags of toys and more than 200 items of bedding material.
Mrs Howard's work has led to her being nominated in this year's Pride of NZ Awards, in the Community Spirit category. She says the nomination was a huge surprise as well as being a boost for her to keep working on the project.
Mrs Howard, who is a Christian, says it is also a way to put her beliefs into practise.
"We don't get to deliver the goods to families ourselves ... but I know this is something that is helping them hugely.
"Being able to give back or to help someone in a small way is a wonderful thing."
Tim Marshall
Community Spirit
It was a series of deaths from domestic violence that spurred Tim Marshall and those around him to act.
The Gisborne father of three is nominated for the Community Spirit Award.
A long-time advocate for helping violent men to find peace, Mr Marshall, 48, is co-ordinator of the Tauawhi Men's Centre, which grew out of the Tairawhiti Men Against Violence group.
The centre provides counselling and other support for men.
"We founded that informal group in 2006 after we had three murder-suicides in our community," he said.
"We did some events and produced some resources and had the idea of having a men's place where men could get help whether or not they were sent by the courts and that eventuated into opening the Tauawhi Men's Centre, where I work now, in 2010," said Mr Marshall, who had volunteered for a men-living-without-violence programme since 2000.
One of the victims of the 2006 killings was a female colleague of his when he worked at the Department of Corrections' probation service.
"A friend of mine, after those [deaths] happened, emailed and said 'what is our community response?', and I thought 'well what's our men's response?', because most of the time when those things happen it's the national organisations like Barnardos and Women's Refuge come out and say what needs to be done.
And sadly most of the police-based statistics say that men are more likely to be the perpetrators of violence.
"I felt that there needed to be something led by men or men needed to stand up a bit more about the issue."
Nine years later, he is proud of what the centre has achieved.
"The real positive thing for us is that we opened thinking if we had a place and men started to know about it then they would come, and they have.
And most of them have come through themselves or their family or their community, rather than being sent to us."
The Pride of New Zealand Awards are proudly brought to you by The New Zealand Herald, The Hits and TSB Bank.
Nominations for the 2015 awards have now closed.
To see more stories of our wonderful nominees click here.
For more information on the awards go to the official website.
