MEDIA RELEASE

10 January 2014

MOTAT Breaks It’s Record of Community Support Last Christmas

Christmas is a time for generosity and giving and last Christmas, MOTAT was able to help give a little Christmas cheer to thousands of Auckland children through the support of its visitors.

2013 marked the eighth consecutive year MOTAT has run its ‘Give and You Shall Receive’ charitable campaign and was able to raise more than ever before, allowing it to donate over 6,500 gifts to Auckland children.

MOTAT Marketing and PR Manager, Danielle Dunn, explains that from the start of December until Christmas Eve, visitors were invited to purchase and donate a gift from MOTAT’s gift shop instead of paying an admission fee. The gifts, ranging from kit sets and educational activity sets through to toys and games, were then distributed by Auckland City Mission and Variety – the Children’s Charity bringing a bright spot to many children’s Christmas.

Donations from the popular MOTAT Nights, Christmas Lights events, which saw over 15,000 people come through MOTAT’s doors to enjoy a spectacular Christmas evening, were also used to purchase gifts for the charities. With visitors to the events being nearly double that of the previous year, visitor donations contributed to the total value of the gifts donated were nearly triple that collected in 2012.

“MOTAT takes great pride in being able to give back to the Auckland community, including educating children and also putting our efforts behind fantastic charitable initiatives such as this.

“To see such amazing support from our visitors, which has made 2013 our most successful year to date is just incredible. This also means that in 2014 which marks our 50th anniversary, we want to be able to make it even bigger and better,” says Ms Dunn.

The Auckland City Mission distributed part of the gifts to families attending its annual Christmas dinner event while Variety delivered gifts before the school holidays to low decile schools including Tamaki Primary, Point England, Pomaria and Te Papapa Schools with television personality, Shane Cortese lending a hand to distribute gifts at Tamaki Primary. 

Cortese, an ambassador for both MOTAT and Variety says of his visit to Tamaki Primary “Seeing the smiles on the faces of the kids as they receive the gifts is such a good feeling. It shows how much initiatives like this make a difference for these children.”

ENDS

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