'Tis the season of cheer again

Roger Moroney

My first brush with this remarkable annual festive enterprise was back in 1984 when I embarked on my journalistic career with the Daily Telegraph in Napier.

The Christmas Cheer Appeal.

The newspaper had taken it up after it had effectively been launched, on a very modest scale, in one of the local banks where a tree was placed in a corner and bank customers asked to make a donation or leave something under it for someone less fortunate in the community.

Within a few years it had taken a firm hold as a way for the community to help out others at a very special time of the year.

By the end of the 80s it was, in terms of items being dropped off, absolutely massive.

To the point where access to the reporter's room became almost cut off as the short corridor from the office foyer was used to store the goodies until volunteers could come and pick them up.

They needed a small truck.

It was astonishing and absolutely gratifying to watch people stop by to drop off a gift or put some cash into the tin.

And the schools and community groups and businesses all climbed aboard the annual festive train to give the food-purchasing cash fund a boost.

When it came time to put together the hundreds of parcels the keen volunteers were delighted to put in the long hours because they all took the same philosophy.

"It is such a good cause."

When the Daily Telegraph and the Hawke's Bay Herald Tribune, which in time also set up a cheer appeal, merged to become Hawke's Bay Today the flag or fundraising and gift and goodie-giving continued to be raised every Christmas.

So here I am, 33 years down the track and still putting words together about this unique community gem.

I could only hazard a guess at how much has been raised during the cheer years - I would estimate about $500,000 and maybe 200,000 gifts and food items ... at least.

And so here we are again, the 2017 Christmas Cheer Appeal is under way and for more than 3000 people it will mean a much merrier Christmas.