Rowie Opper and Rosalie Voyce at the hall of St Francis church, Tokoroa. Rosalie holds a white jacket made "with such love and care and prettiness" by her friend of over 60 years, Sue Clapcott who farms in Ōtorohanga. PHOTO SUPPLIED
ROSALIE Voyce has dispatched a carload of King Country knitting to Ukraine, via a church in Tokoroa.
For many months, the Piopio former nurse co-ordinated a team of local women who lovingly hand-made the warm woollen items, intended for war
refugees in Europe.
Some had wondered if Operation Cover Up would succeed.
“A lot of people doubted it. [They said] ‘is it going to go where you think it’s going?’ [Now, I am] able to say: it’s gone. It’s on its way.”
In some ways, that was a relief.
“How do I feel? I’ve got my spare bedroom back,” Rosalie said.
The warm woollens will “be on their way on the high seas,” when they are shipped from Auckland tomorrow.
To make that happen, Rosalie recently took the blankets, jumpers, hats, scarves and baby clothes to St Francis’ Church, Tokoroa, the main packing area for this part of the North Island.
There, the Waitomo district consignment was packed into its own wool fadge and pressed in the same fashion as fleece straight out of the shearing shed, alongside other collections of knitting from across the country.
Each was labelled with the knitwear’s origin – the specific town in New Zealand.
Two 40-foot containers of Kiwi knitting are expected to arrive in Rotterdam just before Christmas.
They will then be transferred to Romania, unpacked sorted and sent to those in need in the Ukraine.
Many countries are helping in some way; however, New Zealand is reported to have been the only country sending knitted woollen garments.
Rosalie is grateful to everyone who has contributed in some way to the King Country efforts for Operation Cover Up.
“[The knitters] have done an admirable job. As the war goes on and on [the knitting is] going to provide comfort. People will feel that they’re not forgotten.”
Rosalie has only met some knitters in person – many she has just communicated with via phone, sending the wool via courier before having the garments returned to her.
For Rosalie, these efforts were all about being able to help.
“I’m over 80 now and … so many things close to you as you get older. You don’t have the energy to do so many things, but this was just something that I could do.
“Just feeling that I want to be needed and useful … Because I nursed all my life and it was a giving sort of profession.
“I got so much out of it. I was a senior nurse, and I did a lot of important sorts of surgical procedures and so forth, but it wasn’t that.
“It was the feeling, the comforting, and making people’s stay in hospital easier for them. Getting to know their families and just doing little things.
“So, when I stopped nursing, that is what I missed. The sense of doing something kind for somebody else. That’s what I miss most of all.
“It was just the sense that I can still do something. Well, let me do it.
“Let me be of help and comfort to somebody.”
