Traders' flood aid takes off

By SHELLEY HOWELLS

When Bonnie Milne became a member of the Trade Me online auction site, she figured it'd be a good place to do some buying and selling.

She had no idea that the site would become like a second home and, 18 months later, she'd be helping to organise a massive online - and offline - Trade Me community effort to help support the victims of flooding in the lower north island.

"When I went on to Trade Me [www.trademe.co.nz] the first time, the auctions were addictive," says Milne.

"I got so many bargains it's not funny. But now the message board has overtaken the trading for me. It's just great meeting so many people, continuing friendships with them, on- and off-line."

There is lots of trading-specific talk on the boards, but if you take a look under "general" you'll see every topic under the sun: 'Boy, does NZ Idol blow,' 'Places to get married,' 'Looking for grazing for horse,' 'My granddad died today'.

"It's more than trading - we talk about anything and everything and share problems," says Milne.

"There are lots of regulars - I recognise up to 150 people, some I talk to regularly, and some I've met and become friends with."

It was in the sharing of problems that she, and a now close friend she met on the site, started the Trade Me Angels, a small non-profit organisation that, through the message board and auctions, raises funds for traders in need.

(They have a website, created and maintained by members: TMAngels.orcon.net.)

Their first cause was a member's child who needed glasses. They went to the message board for help, people started donating items that they auctioned, banking the profits until they raised enough for the glasses.

The help is not only financial - people donate their time, services such as babysitting and email support or even just 'bumping' an Angels thread. With message-board threads, or topics, the most recent message goes to the top of the list. Type "bump" into a thread and it automatically gets top spot.

Financially, it's not a huge undertaking - to date they have raised about $2500 - but it involves lots of time and lots of traders, many of whom haven't met.

What did become a huge undertaking, too big for the Angels, was their flood-relief effort.

"It just took off on us!" says Milne.

Donations of goods came - sorry - flooding in.

"It started with clothing and toys, then kitchen utensils started coming, then furniture. It became huge."

Sending a couple of boxes to flood victims is easy enough, but they ended up with truckloads of goods. It became a logistical nightmare.

Plus, their "cause" - flooded Trade Me members and their communities - were out of the loop. Their computers were floating away, they had no phone lines, no roads. They just disappeared from the message boards during the floods.

They tried tackling the transport problem by seeking help from transport companies via email. No luck.

But when they hit the message board to ask for help, they found members who had mates with trucks, or who were involved in the transport business, or who had friends-of-friends who offered to help, and they found themselves at least four transport companies who donated time and vehicles.

Jenny Mills, an Auckland trader involved from the start of the flood appeal, decided to deliver some of the donations herself.

She and husband Peter loaded up a 4WD (lent to them by a member they hadn't even met - the couples swapped vehicles for a week) and furniture trailer and spent five days driving around the North Island collecting Trade Me members' donations (and the goods they had gathered from their off-line communities and local businesses), and delivering them to victims.

"We loaded the vehicle with beds, a bassinet, heaters, food, bedding, clothing, kitchen equipment, a lounge suite, a stove, shoes, toys, dinnersets - we had everything," says Mills.

They had arranged, online and via text messages and phone calls, to meet members on the way: Tirau, Coromandel, Waihi, Tauranga, Taupo, Turangi, Napier, Hastings, Dannevirke, Pahiatua, Masterton, Wellington.

Along the way they found members who had arranged free accommodation at motels - even free restaurant meals for them.

They stayed in touch with members via texts and phone. Members around the country sent texts of support, weather forecasts and news of road closures.

"When we got in to Tangimoana with all the stuff, they were shocked. Gobsmacked," laughs Mills.

The local Trade Me member arranged with local relief co-ordinators for distribution of the gear. The same happened in Bulls, in Woodville. And members are still at it all over the country.

Leeanne Ward, a Hamilton Trade me member since 2002, has been organising and collecting goods and storing them at her home.

"It is taking up most of my days and half of my nights as well," she says.

"What started as an Angels thread had a snowball effect and has become a community effort. In Hamilton, Mainfreight have a warehouse full, Star Movers have a full storage shed, my two-car garage is chokka-block.

"In Thames there are thousands of boxes in the community hall, a man from Tamahere has a shed full, in Cambridge there's a full truck and shed."

They admit that there was the odd hiccough in such an informal, grass roots charity drive - too many clothes, and not enough food in Bulls, for example. However, Mills says that they know they have made a difference.

They have certainly proven that online communities are not all about techies sitting, isolated, staring at a screen.

Maybe the yarn over the back fence, the lending of cups of sugar and the support of neighbours are fading traditions but, online, close communities thrive on message boards and chat rooms - and the neighbours are from all around the country.

"I'm proud of the message board," says Milne.

"This has to be the biggest thing we have done together. It was really hard to do it all but so many members, all over the country, helped. It gives you the warm-fuzzies!"

* Email Shelley Howells