the home recently delivered 15 hand-knit blankets
Longview retirement home on Tawa?s Sunrise Boulevard is a breeding ground for community involvement and charitable action. Residents at the home recently delivered 15 hand-knit blankets, and a dozen extras blankets they had spare, to Knit World in Lower Hutt. Longview?s recreation manager Marlene Bowles says the knitting idea was struck-up after residents saw an advert in local papers asking for knitting donations. ?It came from your papers to start with, and the residents picked it up and decided they wanted to help out with the Samoan relief. ?It was a really collective thing they pulled together,? says Mrs Bowles. The blankets were knitted over the past two months with fabric donated to the home and brought in by family members. ?One person took over the whole process on her own, she was a knitter, and got others onboard to contribute,? she says. Knit World sent an entire shipping container of blankets to Samoa and the generous ladies of Longview in Tawa were thanked with a hand-made card. Continuing the holiday spirit is the ?Little Vinnies? from St Vincent de Paul in Tawa. ?It?s really a unique thing for the area, having these young people come along and do service to the community. ?After a whole year of community programmes this final one is quite special,? says Mrs Bowles. Throughout the year students traded lunch breaks to participating in the ?community service?. They have helped residents grow seeds, given oral history presentations, and for their final visit presented posters and sang Christmas carols. Little Vinnie Georgia Kennard, year six, says they have helped the residents with craft work and learnt a lot about the past from oral history lessons. ?We have found out what it?s like here and about their personalities. ?It helps us accept that not everyone is perfect or as fortunate as us, it?s nice to help people out,? says Georgia.
