THE Ōhura Cossie Club was packed for the occasion. PHOTO SUPPLIED
THE $500 price raised at auction for a short length of alkathene pipe with two plastic bags attached, demonstrated the spirit at Ōhura’s recent fundraising evening for cyclone Gabrielle relief efforts.
Organiser and cossie club administrator Helen McKenzie said the pipe and plastic bags was a common stock yard tool used to move animals.
“They’re bag flappers or whatever. It was fiercely contested with the bidding, and then the guy that won it donated it to the under-bidder.
“And that to me was the whole spirit of the evening really.”
The alkathene bag flapper was the last of about 80 items sold at the auction held at the Ōhura Cossie Club in a crowd of about 200 people. Ōhura lies west of Taumarunui in the depths of the King Country and has a population of less than 200, Helen said.
She originally thought the auction might raise $5000-7000, but it raised $20,000, which will buy diesel.
Helen’s son is a fencer at Frasertown, inland from Wairoa.
“They were affected quite badly by it. So, he’d managed to get all his gear home, but we needed everything cleared and the rain to stop.
“He was using all his own gear to clear silt and debris from shops and homes and roads, and everything else.
“He rang us, and he just sort of said to us, ‘where do you stop?’ He said, ‘I want to keep going’ but he said he was paying the staff wages and he spent $5000 of his own money on diesel.
“And that’s what gave me the idea to do it in fuel.”
Everything donated for sale was from the community, Helen said. Nothing was sourced from shops or local businesses.
“It was all donated from the community, which made the end resulting sum even better, considering that Ōhura has only got, I think, just under 200 residents.”
A trip for two on the rail car, New World vouchers, new goods and second-hand goods were all up for auction.
“There was all sorts of stuff. I thought five maybe seven grand, that’d be a pretty good accomplishment. So, when we got to $20,000, it was just amazing, really. It just blew me away that everybody had been so generous with their donations and then generous on the night.”
Auctioneers Grant Ross from Taupō and Carl White donated their service.
Ōhura community punched above their weight, raising $20,000 for diesel for the diggers in Hawkes Bay, Carl said.
“There were all sorts of items for sale, all donated, of course – fridges, washing machines, kitchenware, ovens, vouchers from various businesses. The bar was open and as the night went on the bids got bigger.
“It’s raised money for the diggers, because a lot of those guys over there are using their own diggers. I know two or three diggers have gone from this district over to Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne area, but they certainly haven’t been paid for diesel,” Carl said.
The money was handed to rural fuel supplier Fern Energy, Helen said.
“We were given the option of whether or not we wanted to go through a list of people and decide who got it,” Helen said.
“But I was saying, like they’ve got guys on the ground over there. They know who’s doing the work out of their own pockets, who’s still having to run generators. So, we’ve left it up to them to decide where and who it gets donated to.
“We’ll send a covering letter just saying, ‘from our community to your community, hope this helps.’”
