Pictured: Moe Aoelua and daughter Shalom and Ana Smith, Team leader of Play Specialist Service at KidzFirst.
Kidz First Hospital has just been the grateful recipient of a donation from a Z Energy.
The “Good in the Hood” initiative asked customers at each site to select their favourite charity and the “Kidz First Healing Garden upgrade” was the successful choice.
All up, over $6500 was raised for the upgrade of the Healing Garden. The amount raised was further increased by an additional donation from Z Energy.
A delegation including Ana Smith, Team leader of the Play Specialist Service at Kidz First, Margi Mellsop of the Middlemore Foundation, and the patient family used as the in-house “face” of the campaign, Shalom Aoelua and her parents Moe and Jerry, attended the presentation ceremony.
Ana Smith told the presentation event: “I feel really honoured to be here representing Kidz First and being the recipient of such an amazing donation.
“As COVID restrictions were relaxed, one of the only places that families could gather together was in the Healing Garden. It was here that siblings could reconnect, and families could share a meal together.
“We recognised then that the garden was in desperate need of a makeover and we now have the funds to do this. A big thank you to Melanie and Wayne Kennerley and Z Energy South Auckland for making the donation possible.”
Moe Aoelua, mother of Shalom, and a Nurse Lead at Middlemore, said the whaanau were with Shalom at Middlemore for more than a month at a time of COVID restrictions.
“We spent most of day in the room due to the restrictions and as a precaution, so our daughter didn’t catch any further viral infections.
“The Healing Garden became the space to escape, to try to gather ourselves, and a place to try to have some form of normal family interactions.
“This was very therapeutic for us and this this place needs some help to bring it back to life, and we are glad to be a part of making the upgrade happen.”
Margi Mellsop of the Middlemore Foundation expressed sincere thanks to those staff who helped the initiative by voting at the Z Energy stations.
Photo: Moe Aoelua and daughter Shalom and Ana Smith, Team leader of Play Specialist Service at KidzFirst.
