Along with everyone else, I have been watching the news both from around our beautiful country and from overseas. It’s struck me that while things are not perfect here, we still have it pretty darn good compared to elsewhere. The pictures from the Ukraine and from Wellington have filled me with sadness, and we can only hope that there is a chance for peace and conciliation in both places, and that people can heal and move on with their lives.
You might ask, what does this have to do with business? I believe it has everything to do with business and its impacts. These societal divisions can create unrest among staff, businesses may not be able to operate because of disturbances outside their premises, and people may stop supporting businesses because they perceive a different opinion or value, even if a business is just following government guidelines. We all need to take a deep breath and remember the old days when you could have a different opinion to someone else without being considered an enemy.
I know that people say the word kind and kindness has been over-used, but to me it is time for us to move on and treat each other as we would like to be treated ourselves. This brings me to a group of people who every day put themselves out there for their communities and this is our local emergency services personnel. We are putting on a dinner to thank these amazing people on the May 11 (the date is subject to change depending on Covid restrictions).
I want this to be a dinner where our fire services from Warkworth, Snells Beach, Matakana and Leigh, along with our local police, St Johns, coastguard and surf lifesaving will be served by members of our community as a gesture of gratitude and thanks.
A number of our businesses have already donated products and money to help run the dinner and any funds left over will be distributed between the services. This is a chance for you to show your appreciation, either by donating to the dinner or putting up your hand to help. We will need people to set up, food prep, serve food and drinks, and to help with the clean-up and pack down afterwards. If you would like to be involved in making this a great night, you can email either myself or Alex Heyward at the Town Hall: murray@onemahurangi.co.nz or alex@warkworthtownhall.nz
We live in paradise and we have so much to be thankful, for so let’s make a real effort to be kind to everyone. Allow people to have a different opinion and be thankful that we have people in our community who are members of the emergency services – heroes who are out there in all weather, giving their time often in terrible circumstances to help us.
Stay kind, Buy local, Support local, Employ local and Love local. We are Stronger Together!
One Mahurangi - Manager
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