Creating Christmas Cheer – even BIGGER and BETTER than Last Year
“Helping people who don’t normally put their hands up.”
That’s what the Rebuild Christchurch Foundation’s Project Christmas is all about and nominations open tomorrow, Saturday 24 November.
This is the second year the Foundation has run Project Christmas, which aims to help families struggling to provide a Christmas for their family. Last year the Foundation helped 76 families and the Foundation spokesman Deon Swiggs says this year the aim is to help many more.
“We are grateful for support once again from the Mainland Foundation, which together with the Sanitarium Marmite celebrity fundraising campaign “A Beautiful Struggle” www.abeautifulstruggle.co.nz we are confident this year will be much bigger,” says Swiggs. “We hope to be able to support up to 300 people or families, helping them to have a better Christmas than they would otherwise have had.”
The Rebuild Christchurch Foundation will be working alongside social agencies to ensure they are helping people and families who genuinely need and deserve support, but normally wouldn’t ask.
Nominations can be made on line on the Rebuild Christchurch website www.rebuildchristchurch.co.nz/project-christmas until Sunday December 16th, with deliveries of goodies to the successful nominees taking place the following week.
For more information contact Deon Swiggs 0275794447 or deon@rebuildchristchurch.co.nz
About Rebuild Christchurch:
The Rebuild Christchurch Foundation was established to support and bring together the communities of Christchurch and Canterbury following the 2010/11 earthquakes.
About “A Beautiful Struggle”:
The Rebuild Christchurch Foundation has found a novel way to raise funds this Christmas, through auctioning photographs of empty Marmite jars donated by New Zealand celebrities including Rachel Hunter, Sir Graham Henry, Jaquie Brown and Trelise Cooper.
Renowned Kiwi photographer Chris Sisarich, whose work has been exhibited at the MILK Gallery in New York, is collaborating with celebrities and the Rebuild Christchurch Foundation to capture images of 19 empty Marmite jars for a charity auction.
“The imagery inside each jar is extremely distinctive, it’s more than just an empty Marmite jar,” says Chris. “It’s evident that everyone has been scraping at the bottom to get every last bit out – I know I have – and I hope that other Kiwis are taking a moment to reflect on the difficulties of the past two years for Christchurch as they reach the bottom of their jars.
“It fascinates me that something like Marmite, which is part of the daily routine for many Kiwis has been elevated to the realm of artwork since the shortage. It shows just how iconic Marmite is in New Zealand.”
One original photograph of each celebrity’s Marmite jar will be framed with a signed lid, ready for auction via www.abeautifulstruggle.co.nz from 30 November to 9 December. Bidding for the artwork is expected to be fierce, but everyone can contribute with limited edition prints available for $25 from 20 November to 9 December. All proceeds will go to the Rebuild Christchurch Foundation.