Bread tags for wheelchairs: A young Rotorua girl on a mission

Rotorua 8-year-old Kaylee Galliers is a young girl with a big heart.

It is fair to say Rotorua's Danelle Gatenby was a little confused when she started finding bread tags in her daughter's bed and pockets.

Little did she know, her little girl with a big heart was on a mission to help others.

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Kaylee, 8, heard about the Bread tags for Wheelchairs movement and took it upon herself to get involved.

The Bread Tags For Wheelchairs scheme has been running in South Africa since 2006 and was started in New Zealand last year.

The tags are sent to South Africa and sold to a plastics company which makes seedling trays, and the funds are used to purchase wheelchairs for those in need.

"I have no idea where she found this information, I just found bread tags in her bed one day and asked what she was doing. I Googled it and found out about the charity and how it works.

"Kaylee has this passion to get someone a wheelchair. She is a caring girl, she actually has muscle weakness herself, in her arms or legs, so I don't know if maybe that's what brought it on."

Gatenby mentioned what her daughter was doing to her workmates at the Rotorua Childcare Centre and after they found out it takes 200kg of bread tags to fund one wheelchair, they set up a collection point at the centre as well.

"I'm not exactly sure where she's getting all the bread tags from, some were from our pantry for sure and I think maybe she's been asking her friends.

Rotorua's Kaylee Galliers, 8, is collecting bread tags for a good cause. Photo / Andrew Warner

"All the parents at work have been getting on board and I've been taking photos on my phone to show Kaylee when I get home. She gets really excited.

"It is really nice to see that she wants to help others, I was almost in tears when I started researching what she was talking about."

Kaylee said: "I've been collecting bread tags for a month and these bread tags are a donation to get people wheelchairs for when they need them.

"If you would like to help people collect bread tags go to Bread tags for New Zealand (on Facebook)."