A fundraiser to purchase a van will get the wheels rolling for community connection and wellbeing among Merivale residents.

The Merivale Community Centre were thrilled to be selected for The Funding Network NZ’s Generosity Generator Programme last month –giving them the tools to run a successful crowd funder on Givealittle.

Launching the crowd funder on Monday, November 6, the funds raised will be used to buy a van which will help rangatahi, tamariki, young mothers, the older generation and ethnic communities to connect to activities, events and one another.

Merivale Community Centre manager Dave Merton says they haven’t had a van for the last few years. “We’ve had vans in the past here and its helped get the community to different things –mainly to get our youth to sports games and things.”

“We’ve also got ambition to get some of our older folk who still haven’t turned up after COVID-19 to take them on shopping expeditions or to cultural events.”

Dave says licensed drivers and registered vehicles is not something the centre can lay their hands on easily. “The reason that we need it for the community centre is because we don’t have any other transport apart from our own personal cars to take people around and just to get numbers.” He adds: “We’re hoping we might be able to get an 11 seater. If we can get a bigger one we will but, we’ve got to manage all the ongoing costs.”

Among helping the community access appointments, events and other Bay of Plenty hotspots, the van will also be used to help the Merivale community access to food and valuable services. “Ngapeke Permaculture [in Welcome Bay] have a planting sustainability workshop on a Thursday – planting and growing things, as well as kai –so we would use the van to get the whānau out to that.” Dave says the van will also be used to drop of bags of food donated by Good Neighbour to people in the community.

For Dave it would be a dream for the community centre to get a van before Christmas, but he thinks early next year will be more likely. “I’ve seen some of the donations coming in [to Givealittle] already so there’s some interest in it, and people are sharing it which is very cool. We just need it to go as far and as wide as it can, because then we can share with funders that there’s a will for people who want this to happen for Merivale.”

Visit the Givealittle page and donate at: https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/lets-get-the-merivale-community-moving