After the February 22 quake destroyed my home, my shop and almost everything I had, it was pretty hard for me to have anything to look forward to except endless conversations with insurance agents and demolition experts. There were times when I found it hard to motivate myself to even get out of bed...To keep myself going, I set up a tiny Saturday stall on the verandah of my rented cottage and tried to sell the goods I had ordered and paid for pre-earthquake which arrived post-quake, as well some new tea towels I'd designed. It was there that a customer told me about Hands Up Wellington - it sounded too good to be true. Other friends emailed me, urging me to go, so I tentatively sent an email enquiry off. Heather rang me the next day and told me all about it, and for the first time in weeks I felt I had something to look forward to, something to work towards, something to feel excited about.
I tried not to have too high expectations of the actual event as I knew that just having something to work towards was of huge personal emotional benefit - I figured that that was enough. But when I got to Wellington, it was so much more than I could have hoped for. To see the amount of work that so many people had gone to, was incredible. I really felt that the people of Wellington had welcomed us into their home. And I sold literally hundreds and hundreds of tea towels - I think everyone in Wellington must be drying their dishes with one of my tea towels now! And I have continued to get orders from Wellington ever since.
What I love about what all you wonderful people from Hands Up did, was that you found a really tangible hands on way to make a very significant difference to the lives of some of the people badly affected by the quake. Getting in touch with Hands Up was very much a turning point for me. I am so impressed with how much work and effort so many people put into creating this event, and I can't thank you all enough!
http://godsavethequeenlyttelton.blogspot.com/
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