RNZFB takes home over $1 million from Blind Week

Media release
28 November 2003
For immediate release

RNZFB takes home over $1 million from Blind Week

The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) went out to New Zealand with the message that “we can’t afford for you not to see us” and the response has been outstanding.

The preliminary 2003 Blind Week results are proof that New Zealanders continue to give unstintingly to support blind and vision-impaired people in their communities.

An army of volunteers knocking on doors, collecting in streets and shopping malls, and donations from a direct mail campaign has raised over $1 million so far, with more donations still being counted.

Jeanette Manson, RNZFB Divisional Manager, Fundraising says, "Volunteers play a vital role during Blind Week and we would really like to thank every single volunteer who helped, particularly service clubs like the Lions and Rotary, church and community groups and schools for getting out there and helping us again with our appeal," says Ms Manson.

Ms Manson is delighted with the amount raised so far. "Yet again we've had a fantastic response from the New Zealand public," she says.

"We have surpassed our target of $1million and we still have more donations to process, we're really pleased with how things are going."

Ms Manson attributes the appeal’s success to the ongoing help of our volunteers and the vivid attire they wore during Blind Week.

Collectively, the street appeal and door knock collection has raised over $610,000 and the direct mail campaign has raised over $400,000 so far.

The regional door knock and street appeal totals so far are:

Auckland/ Northland $150,000
Waikato/ King Country $40,000
Bay of Plenty/ Rotorua $59,000
Hawkes Bay/ Poverty Bay $19,000
Wellington /Manawatu/ Taranaki/ Wairarapa $115,000
Nelson/ Marlborough $31,000
Canterbury/ West Coast $87,000
Otago/ Southland $108,000
The RNZFB regional fundraising managers will have appeal results for individual towns and cities in their regions available from 1 December 2003.

- ends -

© Scoop Media