This 50-year story stretches far outside the Manawatu. It ranges as far afield as Gisborne, East Coast, Hawkes Bay, Napier, Hastings, Wairoa, Masterton, Waitara, Hawera, Wanganui, Taihape, New Plymouth and Stratford, and includes all the thousands of people from around the Central North Island who have been touched by, and have made their mark on Ozanam House.
From donors like the Williams Family of Gisborne, who have for decades been tireless financial supporters of the facility, to the individual guests who make Ozanam feel, as one resident put it, 'like a family reunion of total strangers', the story of Ozanam House is theirs as well.
The Trust says it is grateful for the support of many donors in the regions, and the ongoing support of communities in the provincial towns of Waitara, Wairoa, Hawera, Inglewood, Stratford, Waipukurau, Napier, Hastings and many others in between.
It says it is also heartened by the support from small communities in Taranaki, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne, East Coast.
Many individuals and service clubs, especially Lions, have supported Ozanam through community fundraising and enabled the Trust to maintain its high standard of accommodation.
Fully illustrated using archive visual materials and recent photography, A Home Away from Home tells the story of how Ozanam Trustees and staff adapted to advances in medical technologies, negotiated with funding bodies at the local and national level and struggled to keep up with a fluctuating need for accommodation.
But it also tells a story about people - not only those guiding the project behind the scenes, but the individual residents who give Ozanam House its special heart and character.
Countless numbers of individuals, along with service clubs, trusts, estates and other service organisations have contributed their financial, practical and emotional support to Ozanam House, the Trust says.
