Hospice Strawberry Festival – 4th November 2009
Mercy Hospice Auckland was delighted to host the inaugural Hospice Strawberry Festival in the heart of Auckland City. This was part of a national event for Hospice with 13 hospices around the country participating in the fundraising effort. On the day of the festival Auckland City commuters were welcomed to the event in style by the "Strawberry Angels" and invited to chill out and enjoy their strawberries and ice cream in the afternoon sun. QEII square was transformed into a festival atmosphere with music, live entertainment, marquees and a café setting providing a welcome place to relax for city office workers. Fundraiser Verity Lee Sang says the inaugural event had a great response from the public and was a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of Hospice.
The tables were manned by volunteers from BNZ, House of Travel, Air New Zealand, Vodafone and Crockers who dished up over 2,000 serves of spring strawberries and ice cream topped off with strawberry syrup. Auckland Mayor John Banks joined the festivities at lunchtime and made a few sales - as well as having a taste himself, though he admits he enjoyed the ice cream the most. "I have been supporting the Hospice movement all my life, it is one of the great caring charities in this country." said Mr Banks.
Also on sale were fresh strawberry punnets, strawberry plants, strawberry tarts, Christmas cakes and the collectible Hospice Strawberry Angel Christmas decoration which you can purchase too, at the locations listed below. Mercy Hospice acknowledges the generous support of sponsors that helped make the success of this event possible. Special mention must go to PSIS Onehunga and Auckland City branches for sponsoring all the festival marketing materials, Tip Top for providing the yummy ice cream, Carlton Party Hire, Town and Country Marquee Hire, Ripe Deli for their gorgeous strawberry tarts, AUT PR students and all those who distributed flyers and posters on the day. "The generosity of all those involved will be appreciated by many patients and their families through the services that can be provided with these funds," says Mercy Hospice Auckland CEO, Jan Nichols.
In all $22,482 was raised from the event with additional sales of Strawberry Angels expected to take this total well over $30,000.
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