Recipient Story: Family Works

Christmas is a special time of year particularly for children, but not all children in South Canterbury experience this the same. An increasing amount of families have been forgoing Christmas as financial pressures increase. Four years ago Presbyterian Support South Canterbury (PSSC) launched a project to change this and bring joy back to Christmas.

Christmas Angels is a community wide initiative where sponsors (individuals/families or businesses) are matched with a family in need. The sponsor a.k.a "angel" will purchase Christmas gifts for their allocated family and PSSC will deliver these on behalf of the angel.

Family referrals come in from Plunket, Multicultural Aoraki, Arowhenua Whanau Services, Refugee Settlement Service and Family Works. In the first year the project supported 53 families to brighten up their Christmas. This year that number is expected to grow to well over 200. This just shows the financial troubles many families are facing.

"It only takes a few bills and Christmas is gone. It could come down to choices like your car's warrant of fitness or Christmas presents for your kids." - Carolyn Cooper, PSSC Chief Executive.

Christmas Angles Co-ordinator Jan Hide (who is also a former trustee of the Aoraki Foundation) feels fortunate to to be involved with the project.

“The efforts being made by families to improve their lives is so inspiring and the generosity of our sponsors is unbelievable” - Jan Hide

Most important is the difference it makes to those in need. Waking up on Christmas morning with presents under the tree is not a given for all families. It may be only one day but these are days we remember so fondly as children.

“It is the first time in five years we have had presents under our Xmas tree and we now look forward to Xmas day and seeing smiles and tears in our kids eyes” - Anonymous

How the Aoraki Foundation helped:

The Aoraki Foundation funded the operational costs of Christmas Angels in 2021 ($10,000) & 2022 ($9,000) from the Miller General Impact Fund. In 2023 we could only allocate $4,000 to the project but found a partner in Todd Mudie Group who made up the $6,000 shortfall. Thank you to Todd, Sheryl & all the team at TMG.