Jason Zan (left) and Tauranga baker Harriet Campbell (right) hand over tourniquets to a unit member fighting close to Kharkiv in Ukraine during a previous visit.
Jason Zan (left) and Tauranga baker Harriet Campbell (right) hand over tourniquets to a unit member fighting close to Kharkiv in Ukraine during a previous visit.
The Rotary Club of Ōtūmoetai has swung into action to hold a charity quiz night to support club member Harriet Campbell’s next humanitarian ‘tour of duty’ to Ukraine.
Campbell said she would leave New Zealand on July 11 to spend a few weeks with her Oklahoma-based volunteering partner Jason Zan and meet a few United States-based aid organisations before they travel to Ukraine.
The pair plan to set up a semi-mobile food kitchen in one of the towns or villages with the most need, delivering hot meals to frontline troops and civilians.
Carmen Goodwin, the president of the Rotary Club of Ōtūmoetai. Photo / Sandra Conchie
To support Campbell’s efforts, the Rotary Club of Ōtūmoetai is holding a charity quiz night fundraiser on June 17 at the Hotel Armitage in Willow Street, Tauranga, starting at 6pm which also includes a silent auction and raffle sales.
Club president Carmen Goodwin said she met Campbell when the baker and activist spoke about her humanitarian efforts at a club meeting last year.
“Harriet is an amazing person. She is an incredibly humble, trustworthy, and generous person. And in terms of Harriet’s tours of duty to Ukraine, as we call them – she is a true volunteer.
“She does this willingly and always with a smile on her face to help other humans and animals who cannot help themselves.”
She said Campbell’s goal reflected the club’s core values, including commitment to service.
“We are doing everything we can to help support the humanitarian efforts occurring in Ukraine, including Harriet’s tours of duty.
“The people of Ukraine are so hardy of spirit and this is a small thing we can do to support the local and international community’s efforts to assist them and animals in urgent need of our support.”
Tauranga baker Harriet Campbell intends to set up a semi-mobile kitchen to provide hot meals for soldiers and civilians in Ukraine. Photo / Alex Cairns
Campbell said she was blown away by the support for her efforts from the club after they invited her to speak.
She said this included a large cash donation to support her second aid trip to Ukraine in March last year used to buy tourniquets for de-mining crews and soldiers.
Campbell said she became a club member in December, just before her last visit to Ukraine in January and February this year.
“Once again, I was sent off with some incredible donations, some of which helped me buy Christmas presents for 17 [orphaned] children. Now I am preparing for my fourth mission, and amazingly Carmen and other generous club members are looking to help me again with a quiz night fundraiser.
“The situation in Ukraine has become increasingly bleaker and as the world’s interest fades, help is needed more than ever,” she said.
Tickets for the quiz night cost $45 each or $250 for a table of six and can be bought by emailing otumoetai@gmail.com.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
