School calls for help to create Kiwiana welcome

Jandals, flip flops or thongs – whatever you call them Auckland’s Mission Heights Junior College wants them.

The school is on a mission to give visitors flying in for Rugby World Cup 2011 a real kiwi welcome by creating a welcome sign, partly made out of jandals.

“The children have come up with a design for the word Harae Mai where the ‘i’ will be covered with jandals,” says art teacher Kathlene Hetaraka.

“The problem is with each of the letters being around eight metres by three and a half metres we don’t have enough so we are appealing to the community for help.”

She says even if they get more jandals than they can handle, those in good condition will be donated to the local Salvation Army.

The Flat Bush-based school has been busy creating the other adornments to their welcome including making more than 1700 flax flowers for one of the letters.

Welcome Words is part of the Auckland Council's HeART of the Nation programme running in the south of the region.

The programme is one aspect of Auckland's exciting Rugby Festival activity and forms part of the larger REAL New Zealand Festival 2011 which aims to showcase our land, people and places to the world.

The welcome words being created by schools will become a notable feature of the Auckland landscape during the September and October following the international and domestic flight paths.

There will be welcome words in each of the 20 participating nation’s languages which is proving a big challenge… literally.

The longest welcome word will be from Georgia at 63 metres long.

Schools entered a competition to participate in the World’s Most Friendliest Welcome with the best designs selected for further development.

“This is an easy way for our community to get involved and play a part in saying a great big welcome to the world! One of Auckland' strengths is our cultural diversity so it makes sense to greet our overseas guests in this unique and inclusive way," says Councillor Alf Filipaina.

If you have a pair of jandals to donate they can be sent to or dropped off at:

Mission Heights School,
103 Jeffs Rd,
Mission Heights,
Flat Bush, Manukau.