Westpac team digs in for flood victims

The donning of gumboots and the delivery of some home baking by the Westpac Agribusiness team has left smiles on the faces of the residents of Puniwhakau.

Puniwhakau resident Graham Candy says he and his neighbours "want to say a big thank you to the Agribusiness team at Westpac New Plymouth," who came out to offer physical help to the small community following the floods and slips in June.

Although Puniwhakau didn't make the news, we suffered severe flooding and slips which closed our road and limited access to neighbours for four days. Limited power and no phone lines added to the distress of the locals of the valley.

Puniwhakau resident Graham Candy

However on Friday, June 26, seven staff from Agribusiness Westpac decided to leave their comfy air conditioned offices, don gumboots and overalls and drive the muddy slippery roads to bring food, shovels and can do attitude to the flood stricken farmers."

Graham says while several residents of the small community are Westpac customers, not all are, "but they delivered small parcels to non Westpac customers and brought out some home baking for lunch for the valley".

Rhys Fulton, area manager of Agribusiness Westpac, says the team wanted to help those in need. "We had heard about the damage to the area, everyone we spoke to said Puniwhakau had been badly hit, so we decided to see if we could offer help."

The original plan had been to deliver "some biscuits," he says, "however we soon thought if we were going to go out there we should be willing to do something more practical, so asked what we could do to help".

Westpac encourages staff to volunteer in the community where they can, allocating a volunteer day each year where staff can give their time to a project as a volunteer, so this, says Rhys, was how staff in his team decided to spend their volunteer day this year.

For people like Graham and his neighbours, it wasn't just the physical work the team willingly completed, but also the way in which their actions boosted morale.

"They got stuck in, not afraid to get dirty. Without their help we wouldn't have farm water supply, they slogged through mud and debris to run out several hundred meters of alkathene to provide temporary water supply to the farm and shed. They boosted moral amongst the stressed and anxious farmers of Puniwhakau."

Graham says that water, fencing and stock containment remains an issue for many in the area, so the help received that Friday made a real difference to the people in the community.