Bloomin' big donation (+video)

The Rotorua Festival of Gardens committee decided to fertilise the community and donated $25,000 to the Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter.

The helicopter flew into one of the committee member's gardens to receive the cheque on Sunday afternoon.

Rotorua Festival of Gardens chairman Paul Shaw said the committee had always had a problem picking a charity to donate the funds raised to and, when they decided to just pick one and stick with it, the Bay trust Rescue Helicopter was the one they all agreed on.

"We run the festival every two years, last time we gave $15,000 and this time we are giving $25,000 and we are hoping to build on it again next time."

They sold 1400 tickets for last year's festival and 466 of those were for out of town visitors.

"We are a very small group, there's only eight on the committee, so it's a lot of work," Mr Shaw said.

Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter marketing and communications manager Vanessa Richmond said it cost an annual excess of $1 millon per annum to keep the trust running and 53 per cent of that came from the community.

"We get money from all different sources and every dollar helps," Ms Richmond said.

Ann Green hosted the donation event, where the Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter flew into her garden and accepted the cheque.

"We all worked really hard in our gardens and having the helicopter here has made it a reality and lets us see what our hard work has achieved. It's really special."

Helicopter chief pilot and base manager Barry Vincent said the trust was really grateful for the donation.

"I'd like to say a big thank you for all [the festival's] efforts. It's really great. We can't do the job without support."