Operation Cover Up Whangamata. Photo / Brian Pittams
Operation Cover Up Whangamata. Photo / Brian Pittams
Liz Clarke can't knit or crochet - but has a theory on how her idea to start Operation Cover Up has now supplied more than 148,000 blankets and almost a million knitted items to people in need.
It's called the warmth of love.
All over the Hauraki and Coromandel - Operation Cover Up volunteers are busy helping people in freezing Eastern European countries by knitting one and purling one.
Liz, of Taupō, can name the co-ordinators on the Coromandel and Hauraki region and is grateful to every one of them for their role in the operation she founded.
She says the Thames volunteers are among those doing a huge amount for Operation Cover Up, which matches up the skills and time from volunteers throughout New Zealand with needy families in Eastern Europe, where winter can get as cold as -25C.
She visited the Ukraine in 2005 and was overwhelmed by what she saw in the orphanages. What she didn't expect was how much Operation Cover Up has done to help the volunteers doing the knitting.
"I had a man whose wife died of cancer ring me and thank me for what Operation Cover Up did for his wife when she became the co-ordinator, because it had given her a reason to get up in the morning.
"Another woman who was depressed said she joined the Operation Cover Up group and it has introduced her to all her best friends now.
"We all need a purpose to get up in the morning and this is what it's given people."
Last year Liz wrote a book, titled The warmth of love, which sums up Operation Cover Up and the good it brings to not only recipients of the items but those that produce them.
"I don't knit and I'm no good at bookwork but we've sent over 148,000 blankets and nearly a million items, we have 250 co-ordinators around New Zealand ... It's been amazing."
Liz says her book is quirky and funny, a little like herself.
"I wrote the draft on pieces of paper and bits of envelopes. But it's gone wonderfully well. When there's so much doom and gloom, it's a heartwarming read."
Liz regularly visits Cooks Beach on the Coromandel, after she met a woman while walking the beach and the stranger offered her a free stay in her bach.
She has been unwell since September and doesn't get to the Coromandel much, but is heartened by the work of volunteers.
"It's been incredibly fulfilling for me but there's no ego because I couldn't have done it when I don't knit and don't want to. If it had been just about me it wouldn't have last very long."
there's no ego because I couldn't have done it when I don't knit and don't want to.
Bev Lusby of Whangamata says she joined the Operation Cover Up Whangamata group when a friend introduced her.
The items created in Whangamata and other towns on the Coromandel and Hauraki go to Thames, where they are displayed, before being parcelled up to Auckland.
A magazine shares photos of the people receiving the goods.
"These families live in conditions that are very cold and poor," says Bev. "When I see the photos of their happy faces and how grateful they are for the work of people all over New Zealand - not just us in Whangamata - it's wonderful."
The group in Whangamata are again having their annual display at Cornerstone House on 9 and 10 July from 10am to 2pm each day.
The money raised from a gold coin donation and the raffle that's run goes towards shipping costs.
The women members - all members in Whangamata at the moment are women, though the husbands are brought in to help unravel wool from time to time - encourage locals to come and see their work before it reaches its overseas destination.
"In the past we've had tremendous displays and this year won't be any different," says Bev.
• Operation Coverup, 10am - noon, Cornerstone House, Whangamata, every second Friday of the month. Ph co-ordinators Bev 07 865 8586 or Janene Hill Ph 07 865 9492. Donations of wool appreciated.
