This Christmas, the Herald is again featuring charities which have been selected for a $10,000 donation from Auckland International Airport. Eleven charities have been chosen and the 12th donation will go to the families of the Pike River 29. The $120,000 came from change dropped off by travellers at the airport this year.
Learning how to correctly use a carseat could one day mean life or death for your child.
Therefore Plunket - one of this year's 12 Days of Christmas recipients - is looking to use its grant to help make sure young children are safer on our roads.
The charity is the first to be profiled in this year's series and receives $10,000 to go towards its Auckland carseat rentals service.
Up to 70 carseats will be bought for the service, which already rents out thousands of seats to families from all over the Auckland region - from Warkworth to Manukau City.
The money will also go towards education schemes to teach parents and caregivers the importance of using a carseat.
Waitemata carseat manager Simone Budel, who put through the application, said she was ecstatic when she received news that they were one of the lucky winners.
"We rely heavily on volunteers and grants and donations to fund our [carseat] rental schemes, so I was just so happy," she said.
The Plunket carseat rentals in Auckland - as well those around the country - are part of various services Plunket provides for parents.
Mrs Budel said that although many parents, particularly first-time parents, sought their services there were still a lot of problems associated with carseats and child restraints.
Those ranged from parents who did not know how to correctly position their child in a carseat, to those who just did not care about having one.
And with carseats retailing at $150 to $300, affordability was the issue for many others.
"If you do a checkpoint these days, child restraints are a low priority for a lot of people."
She said the grant was a timely gift, given last week's road safety checkpoint in Otara, South Auckland, where child restraints were one of the biggest problems police found.
One child was found seated on a highchair with its legs cut off.
Mrs Budel said there needed to be greater awareness among parents, that safety was paramount.
"It's very blase at times. People just have that attitude 'it's not going to happen to me'."
