News from Bruce at Te Aroha Noa, Highbury

Even small actions can grow collaborative relationships, as I discovered recently when we met the Mayor of Palmerston North about another matter and used the opportunity to talk about our work. He must have been impressed because not long afterwards we received a donation of $200 from the Council Chief Executive. The great thing was how the money had been raised by Council staff, through a gold coin contribution, on Promoting Families Day. They decided to donate it to our programme.

Children dancing enthusiastically at Te Aroha Noa SKIP event - with dance instructor!

Serendipitously, $200 was the exact sum we needed to pay for a dance instructor at a SKIP community event.

I wrote a letter to the CEO saying how their donation had been used and remarking how their timing was perfect and that their staff's spontaneous and generous donation had unexpectedly arrived just when we needed this amount of money. I later learned that my letter of appreciation had been circulated to the entire Council staff. The Chief Executive is now accompanying the Mayor for a visit to Te Aroha Noa. It showed me how collaborative partnerships can be built by little actions.