Thank You Wellington

This past weekend our business had the privilege to be involved in the Hands Up event in Wellington.

Since February 22nd affected Christchurch retailers had to deal with loss of premises and stock, terminations of leases and a lost customer base, an environment of increased risk and uncertainty and have had many decisions made which greatly impacted them, of which they had no input.

The future looked a little bleak. There were two positives, both from Wellington that helped us go forward with some hope. The first being the wage subsidy which was easily accessed and not tied up in bureaucracy, allowing us to retain cherished staff. The second was an idea that started with one person with amazing energy and grew to involve a small army of dedicated volunteers and supporting businesses. They rallied to arrange a venue, a large number of generous sponsors, advertising, transport and council backing to provide an opportunity for affected Christchurch retailers to present their products to the Wellington public, all at no cost to the Christchurch retailers. This gave us all a ray of hope and something to look forward to and work towards.

The event was a huge success and Wellingtonians came in their thousands and generously supported the affected Christchurch retailers, in our case, providing sufficient funds to build a movable temporary shop, allowing us to reopen and retain our wonderful staff.

We felt humbled by all the effort put in by these wonderful people and once again say Thank you Wellington, you have made a difference.

Anthony & Karen Reid

Woodcraft Gallery

Christchurch