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Home / Northland Age

Letter to the Editor - Tuesday August 7, 2012

Northland Age
6 Aug, 2012 10:22 PM2 mins to read

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Never be denied

Browny and his wife Toni donated a carved bench for the new boardwalk in Mangonui. My wife and I used to sit and look at the harbour. Losing that bench makes our community poorer, and we share in that disappointment.

A similar thing happened at Kaitaia College. My son Luke wanted to thank the college, so he designed and built a square picnic table, placed by the senior study room. It was a masterful job, so it was chained to a pipe railing. Students would sit around it and chat. The next year, when we returned from summer holiday, the table was gone.

My reaction was for my woodwork classes to build more tables. We built them out of 6x2 so they would be heavier to move. When they were graffitied, we painted them; when vandalised, we repaired them and when taken we replaced them. Seeing the students sitting around our tables was a joy that I would not be denied.

Mother Teresa's poem Do it Anyway was prominently posted in my old woodwork room:

"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centred. Forgive them anyway.

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If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

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Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway."

Never be denied the joy of giving.

MIKE WARD

Mangonui

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