Lions Quake Appeal

Ever since last September, its been hard to get away from the tragedy that is Canterbury, and while we all want to help, sometimes its difficult to find a suitable medium to do so.

In the case of my wife Jean and myself, we had the reality brought home to us several weeks age, when watching the news one evening, and a segment on the Japanese quake and tsunami featured an interview with a man, who with his wife had an almost miraculous escape from the tsunami, and as soon as his image came on, Jean said “that’s Tatsuia” and sure enough, the reporter addressed him by that name.

So how did we know Tatsuia, well, years ago, he came to NZ as a teenager on a Lions sponsored Youth Exchange and we hosted him in Inglewood for 10 days.

We eventually lost contact with him, and to see his image appear on our screen out of all the literally millions who were affected in this horror was unbelievable.

And then, a week later, we had a meal with a family member who had come up to Taranaki from Christchurch for some R & R as he was still waiting for his home to be repaired after the Sept. quake, and we were able to briefly share in what the people are actually having to put up with in Christchurch and the surrounding area.

So, the question was how could we personally help, and having sold our electrical contracting business some 14 months ago, and now being officially retired, cash was not really an option.

But what do we have that could be turned into cash, and the first thing that came to mind was a quantity of a handy little 3n1 tool consisting of knife and saw blades, plus a 2 metre tape, which we had originally used as a give-away at the Mystery Creek Field-days to promote our Vat Insulation Wraps.

These are a really handy little gadget, I’ve got about 8 or 9 scattered around the house, my garden, and workshop, and there probably is not a day goes past that I don’t use one , but seeing that we still have about 3000 in storage meant that if we could clear say, $15 each on these gadgets and move all our stock, we would be able to send $45,000 to Christchurch.

So how do the maths work out, well, taking a base cost of $4 for the tool, P&P $4 brings us to $8, but hey, what about GST on a sell price of say $21.70, which would bring the total to $25.

So a quick call to my friendly accountant revealed that IRD may be able to grant a dispensation for donations to the quake appeal, so she agreed to follow-up for me and check out the actual details.

The bottom line is that if we were able to dispose of our 3000 3n1 tools and not have to pay GST then we could actually do better than the above the above figure and could possibly hit $50,000, so thats the new target.

So lets just pause a moment, because you are probably saying to your-self “ Can I trust this guy! “, because that would be my initial reaction, so here is my background.

I have lived in Inglewood all my life, been married for 54 years, have served on a variety of local bodies, and 56 years in local service clubs (including the last 44 as a member of Inglewood Lions Club) am currently a board member of both the Inglewood Development Trust and Inglewood First Trust, have done around 26 years  as chairman of the Forrestal House Management Committee, have raised over $300,000 for various Inglewood groups, organized a campaign to bring up 100 school children from Southland after the disastrous floods in 1984, have chaired 6 major local functions and written two historical books,  have promoted energy conservation in the Dairy and Winery industries on a national basis as an off-shoot of our electrical contracting business which we sold to our daughter March last year, and as one of our Lion members remarked the other night “ You obviously have too much spare time now that you are retired !”

After deciding to become involved in yet another fundraiser, I asked the Inglewood Lions to sponsor this appeal by setting up a separate bank account with the Taranaki Savings Bank, which they have done, and this account will be monitored by two of our Inglewood Lions, Past Presidents Graham Robinson and David Powell, who will act as co-signatories to the account which will be known as the “ 3n1 Quake Appeal “   

If you would like to be a partner in this campaign, then the simplest way is to send your cheque for $25 made out to: Lions 3n1 Quake Appeal

P.O. Box 95
Inglewood 4347

Include your name, delivery address, ph. no. and we will get your 3n1 tool off within a couple of days with a receipt included.

When we hopefully have all the tools sold, we will transfer the funds to the Inglewood Lions Club who will then organize a presentation to a Canterbury organization yet to be decided, and at that time, a letter of appreciation will be posted on this website, with the total of the amount raised shown.

If you need any further information, you can contact me at: juliansathome@xtra.co.nz

Thank you in advance for the generosity shown so far, and we hope you will be a willing participant in this campaign.

Warmest best wishes

Pat Julian
8 Mahoe St
Inglewood
Ph. 06 756 7590

PS. If you don’t think you would use the 3n1 tool, but would still like to contribute, then just send us $20, we will send you a receipt, $15 of your donation will go into the fund, with the balance to cover our costs, and we will send your 3n1 tool to Christchurch as a gift to an individual quake victim. Don’t forget to include your name and address if you prefer this option.
 

Published 3rd May 2011

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