Luke Kirkness: Something worth celebrating in an otherwise rocky year

Many people still appear to have the desire to help others, which is especially important in a time of need. Photo / Andrew Warner

OPINION:

This has not been the year many people wanted it to be.

After the country managed to kick community cases of Covid-19 to touch in 2020, and again in March this year, it re emerged in force in mid-August.

A man from Devonport, on Auckland's North Shore, fell ill and sought a virus test which later returned positive for the Delta variant.

Following the discovery, the powers that be plunged New Zealand into another lockdown.

We in the Bay of Plenty were reasonably lucky, escaping the grips of alert levels 4 and 3 pretty quickly but those in Auckland remained in the heightened alert levels for more than 100 days.

Actually, maybe we weren't lucky.

Thousands of dollars were raised in the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post appeals. Photo / NZME

Those in charge of our local health system may have been counting their lucky stars but the lockdown in Auckland crippled some Bay of Plenty businesses as borders remained closed.

Suddenly, our region — which depends heavily on domestic and international tourists — started to fall to its knees as Covid-19 made its presence felt despite there being no local cases for months.

Things weren't looking great.

Aside from community cases increasing, there were other issues to contend with.

For one, the vaccine mandates for teaching and health workers created headaches for employees, employers and the Government.

Meanwhile, house prices in our region continued to skyrocket, pushing more and more first home buyers to the wayside. Rental costs and the price of fuel have also increased.

And yet, among the increasing workloads, climbing stress levels, division around vaccinations and mandates, and all manner of other problems, some people still had it within themselves to help those in situations less fortunate than their own.

Over the past six weeks or so, the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post ran their annual Christmas appeals for the Tauranga Community Foodbank and Rotorua Salvation Army Foodbank respectively.

Both appeals were a success, with $163,082 donated in Tauranga and $65,792.10 donated in Rotorua.

The Tauranga figure was the second-highest in the appeal's history and was made up of $112,342.14 in cash donations, $24,695 in food donations and $1350 in supermarket gift cards. Last year, $190,990 was raised.

Meanwhile, the Rotorua figure was just ahead of last year's final record tally of $64,984.90 and the value was an almost even split of goods and money.

READ MORE
City raises over $160k for Tauranga Community Foodbank despite Covid 19
Rotorua Daily Post Christmas appeal ends with $65,792 in total donations

As the pandemic continues and the new Omicron variant spreads around the world, who knows what is around the corner.

One thing for certain is many people still have the desire to help people and the means to do it, which is especially important in times of need and uncertainty.

There are many things not worth celebrating in 2021 but the effort of our communities and volunteers certainly are.

Let's hope this level of love and sympathy continues into 2022.