Day 38 - more posters

Another 80 posters were put up today around shops etc in Tower Junction, Addington and Barrington, as well as many of the workplaces that have shifted into Addington after the earthquake.

Thanks Addington School, and South Intermediate for photocopying.

Good news about staging for the concert, the Council are now sourcing and paying for a truck to be used as a stage. Still sorting out Portaloos for the day.

Day 37 - curtain-sider truck needed for concert

Some kind of stage is needed for the April 9 Concert in Addington. The council stage looks like it is now unavailable.

A curtain-sider truck could be used for a stage if it could be borrowed for the day. Contact Addington Action if you can help.

Mike
9800902
027-2105-042

UPDATE Thursday 31/3/2011
The Council are now sourcing and paying for a truck to be used as a stage.

Day 36 - posters in shopping centres

To publicise the Addington Concert and Fair, 80 sets of posters have gone up in shops, doctors surgeries, community centres, schools, churches, pubs and workplaces in Rowley, Hoon Hay, Addington, and Tower Junction. Barrington is yet to be done.

Thank you Salvation Army and Sacred Heart School for photocopying.

Day 35 - help distribute posters for the Addington Fair and Free Concert

Please help distribute these posters by downloading them and printing them. They need to go up in shops, clubs, workplaces and on power poles.

• Concert Poster (PDF 931 KB)
• Concert Poster (JPG 134 KB)
• Fair Poster (PDF 564 KB)
• Fair Poster (JPG 481 KB)

Day 34 - a walk in the park

Today the organisers of the April 9 Addington Fair and Concert visited Church Square to make a plan.

Coralie Winn from Gap Filler, Richard Hensby from The Haze and myself from Addington Action met up with Alan Hudson and Nate Cull from St Mary's Church to discuss arrangements. Other members of The Haze came to have a look.

There is power available for the music sound system as well as the Bouncy Castle for kids. The Council have been asked to supply Port-a-loos, staging and shelter for the band equipment.

The bands will play in front of the bell tower, with fair stalls around the perimeter under the trees. Kids races will be East in front of the Church.

The decision was made to make this event as big as possible with the widest possible publicity.

Richard joked it could be called "our finest hour" in reference to the blitz.

Richard is putting together the run sheet for Saturday and the Sunday alternative. Dawne Burns, Bernadette Renwick and I will be MC's.

There are two posters to put up around Addington. One to promote the fair by Gap Filler and the other to promote the concert by Addington Action.

Labour Party member and Fine Arts student Ben Ross, designed the concert poster. Thanks Ben. Ben will be filming the concert.

Starting tomorrow, both posters will be put up side by side on power poles, shop windows, clubs, schools, churches and workplace notice boards. Some large banners will be hung on fences closer to the time.

Addington Action will visit local residents in Church Square this week to talk about this event so everyone's happy.

The "if its raining" backup day is Sunday 10th starting at 12noon instead of 11am.

Day 33 - community day at Christchurch South Community Gardens

Saturday April 2nd
10am – 1pm

Free Soup and Sausage Sizzle

- Plants & Produce
- Baking
- Displays and Information
- Community Networking

FREE LUCKY VISITOR RAFFLE DRAW

More information at:
http://www.cscommunitygardens.net.nz/

Or contact us: Email: info@cscommunitygardens.net.nz
Phone: 942 6630
Address: 188 Strickland St. Spreydon

Day 32 - recognition and thanks

Today in front of the school assembly at Addington School, Local MP Jim Anderton and I gave Ali Ahmadi a book in recognition of the wonderful effort he made.

There was also an article in The Press newspaper about Ali.

Addington School, Sacred Heart School, Sacred Heart Parish, Go Bus, Kingdom Resources, Manuka Cottage, Jim Andertons Electorate Office, Spreydon Baptist and the Salvation Army have all been visited with a copy of the Addington Action report to Civil Defense. The report is about what the 150 volunteers did to help. They have also been given notices about the upcoming April 9 Addington Concert and Fair, to circulate in their newsletters. Many other organisations in the local area will be visited in the coming week.

Everyone is being asked to gather and forward stories about what people did to help after the recent earthquake.

These stories will be told during the Addington Concert between band performances and also put on this website. Each organisation is being offered a password to this website so they can add information directly.

Ali,s picture

Day 31 - gift of more safety gear

Isobel Renwick and I just got back with a car load of safety gear donated by Fabricell. Addington Action is now well set up to equip volunteers to deal with local needs. We were responding to the offer in this press statement.


DONATED MEDICAL AND SAFETY EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE IN SYDENHAM IMMEDIATELY

Wigram MP Jim Anderton is assisting Auckland based medical and safety supply company Fabricell in its efforts to distribute free medical and safety products valued at over $300,000 to Christchurch hospitals, clinics, recovery centres, rest homes, clean-up operations and food shelters.

Fabricell’s generous donation was made immediately after the February earthquake in order to help towards the recovery and restoration of the city, its people and community.

The products, ranging from coveralls, gloves, sanitizer, wet weather gear, fire retardant and Hi Vis apparel are being stored in a Sydenham warehouse and available immediately. 

The products have been donated free of charge to local organisations such as the Canterbury DHB, the Public Health Unit of the Ministry of Health and the Christchurch City Council along with Civil Defence and other organisations in need of medical and safety product and apparel.

Jim Anderton is encouraging local organisations to get in touch with Emma Jeffery on 0275 760 636 or emma.jeffery@fabricell.com or turn up to the warehouse at 73 Coleridge Street, Sydenham to access the donated stock.

“So many people have rallied round to help our city and this sizeable donation of safety equipment from Auckland is not just generous and thoughtful but in short supply right now in our time of need.

“It’s humbling that so much is being done across the country for Christchurch right now, there’s much to be grateful for”, says Jim Anderton.

Day 30 - Addington stories wanted

Do you know a good story about Addington people who got stuck in when the quake struck and helped others?

I'm gathering these to add to this website and also for the April 9 Addington Fair and Free Concert. There are some amazing tales!

Do you have photos or video clips that you would be happy to share?

Please contact Addington Action
027-2105-042 (Mike)
9800902 (Mike)
info@addingtonaction.org.nz

Day 29 - employment seminar

Today, five Addington Action volunteers attended a half day employment seminar organised by Tony McPheat at Kingdom Resources in the Addingtown Mall. The helpful seminar was run to help us sort out CV's for finding work in Christchurch, given the recent earthquakes.

Addington Action volunteers
(From left) Stuart McIntosh, Anwar Ahmadi, Mike Peters, Dani Conaghan, Tony McDonald

Kingdom Resources provide free budgeting and employment advice. Ph 332-1700

Day 28 - Helping Kids through earthquakes

Tonight there was a successful community meeting about helping kids through earthquakes. It was held at St James Church on Barrington St and organised by Megan Woods, Labour candidate for Wigram.

A range of speakers provided advice and assistance on getting kids through the trauma of earthquakes. Local MP, Jim Anderton, outlined assistance available for families.

There was some fact sheets distributed giving phone numbers to ring to get assistance.

If residents have difficulty getting support from agencies, contact Jim Anderton's temporary office who are very happy to sort things. Ph 365-5459.

Day 27 - Addington Fair and Free Concert planned

Just got off the phone talking with Coralie Winn from Gap Filler. Turns out they were planning a fair in Addington for Saturday April 9, and we were planning a free concert for around the same time, so we all agreed to combine efforts. The very rough details at the moment are:

Addington Concert and Fair
Saturday April 9 2011
St Mary's Church Square Addington
11am - 4pm

Celebrate Addington residents helping each other and staying strong!

Bands

• The Eastern
• The Haze
• La Petite Manouche
• A Capellago World Music Choir
• Mark Humpage

Food Stalls, kids games
Organised by Gap Filler and Addington Action

Posters will be available soon to put up in local shops, outside churches, clubs and schools, and on 150 power poles in the 64 Addington streets. Gap Filler is organising the fair and Addington Action is organising the concert. Should be fun. Lets hope Canterbury puts on a fantastic sunny day!

Will need some volunteers to gaffa tape posters to the power poles.

Day 24 - Spreydon and Hoon Hay

People are coming to the rubble piles and taking away the good bricks to make paths and garden walls. That's great! Pass the word.

Had a meeting with Dave Bates at Spreydon Baptist Church this morning. They have agreed to handle requests for help from residents in the area South and West of Addington.

This area is bound by
Selwyn St - Ashgrove Tce - Cashmere Rd - Henderson Rd - Halswell Rd - Lincoln Rd - Barrington St - Coronation St.

Addington Action will contact people today who have asked for help in this area and refer them to Spreydon Baptist for assistance. This practical assistance comes with no strings attached. You don't have to be a member of their church.

The person at Spreydon Baptist who can be contacted directly is

Dave Bates
ph 338-4163 ext 236 (leave a message)
earthquake@spreydon.org.nz
http://www.spreydon.org.nz/


Community Meetings  - Helping Kids through earthquakes

Megan Woods, Labour Wigram, invites parents and children to one of the following community meetings intended to provide advice and assistance on getting kids through the trauma of earthquakes.
The meetings will be held on;

Monday 21st March
St James Church
Cnr Bewdley and Barrington Sts
7pm

Saturday 26th March
Hornby Club
17 Carmen Rd, Hornby
2pm

The speakers will include child health and child psychology experts along with Jim Anderton, the MP for Wigram who will outline assistance available for families.

http://www.meganwoods.org.nz/
http://www.progressive.org.nz/

Day 23 - loose ends

Today was spent checking rubble piles and meeting the residents keeping an eye on them.

Also making contact with organisations in the area to get better organised for future economic and social challenges. Today the Progressive and Labour Parties, tomorrow Spreydon Baptist Church.

More calls received requesting help by residents and more volunteers putting their names down. Most calls are coming from the street posters on power poles.

Making contact with all unemployed volunteers about the 2 day employment seminar next week.

Day 22 - old iron

Bev from Any Old Iron picked up the scrap metal from the Addington street piles this afternoon for recycling.

You can contact Ben or Bev at 027-433-2760, A/H 347-6077 if you have metal for recycling and they will come and get it.

Addington Action moved out of Manuka Cottage this morning, so that Manuka Cottage could reopen.

Thanks Anglican Care and Manuka Cottage for the use of the cottage.

Volunteers now meet as required co-ordinated by cell phone text messages.

The long drops are all in good order.

Today the discussion revolved around the damaged roofs of people without insurance. A lot of people in Addington are broke and have no insurance. It would be a matter of finding some roofing iron to patch the holes. Maybe a day late next week with a car and trailer, ladder, roofing nails, iron, a pile of volunteers  and a list of addresses. Otherwise, winter will stuff these homes and lead to more illnesses.

Day 21 - tarp and tidy

Today we tarped a bust chimney for an elderly gent in Ward St. Found heaps of bricks in the branches of trees like a strange fruit.

Tidied up the rubble piles - so that the bricks, timber and metal are separate to make recycling easier.

The 2 day employment seminar for Addington Action volunteers looking for jobs is now official, happening next Monday and Tuesday 9am - 12 noon at Kingdom Resources. I'm contacting everyone who helped to offer them a place. I will write them all a glowing reference, as befitting such great people.

A full written report was sent to Civil Defense this afternnon with pickup addresses for street rubble piles.

Photos of the Andy-Loo longdrops were uploaded to the Show Us Your Longdrop website.

Long drops were put in 4 local Addington Parks for residents to use.

They are named Andy-Loo in honour of Andrew the builder of the first one who showed us the way.

Other examples of Christchurch long drops can be seen at http://www.showusyourlongdrop.co.nz/ .

Andy-Loo 1
Addington Bush Reserve

Andy-Loo 2

Addington Park

Andy-Loo 3

Dickens St Reserve



Andy-Loo 4
St Mary's Church Square

about me

My name is ali and iam from afghanistan.I was walking to what is going in the christchurch after earthquake.So i found mike peters number from the poster.And i call to him i said my father want to help and he said ok come in 45 Dickens St and i found his address from the map. I don know about new zealand address really good because iam just new zealand. And i went theire for help with my father. So mike peters was really good person. this is my picture with my dad

Day 18 - return of the weekend

Today the crew went east around Burke, Ruskin, Harman, Fairfield and Cotteral Streets. Took down a chimney, and shifted lots of rubble from homes to nearby street piles. New pile at 40 Fairfield St.

Some homes needed checking but appear abandoned. Will keep visiting next week to check on the people who live there.

We are shutting down Saturday and Sunday and moving to weekdays only. Sad good byes for many of us as people return to work, school or move back east to Aranui.

Christine offered Strictland Street Gardens for a big concert for Addington to celebrate being alive and everyone working together.

Ali and Sasha took photos for the website.

More bottled water shipped to Sally Army Addington and Addington Primary.

Tony at Kingdom Resources left a message that a 2 half day course for AAC volunteers looking for work will run on March 21 and 22 to sort CV's, practicing job interviews etc. Great news. I will phone or visit everyone who said they were looking for a job to invite them to take part. Will also write each person a reference.

150 different people volunteered as part of Addington Action over the last 18 days. Most came for one day, some many days.

Day 17 - the interweb

Today we got a website for Addington Action to help get the message out to people who want to have and still have internet access.

A majority of our volunteers don't use a computer or they are broken. And our mates in the Eastern suburbs can't get onto the internet. However - its good to have a public record, and people can print off pages to put on noticeboards.

John from Spreydon Baptist rang up to do an interview for their website. He asked for photos. We havn't taken any in the whole time because its been so busy. Opps! Better start taking photos tomorrow.

Tony put signs on more local resident initiated rubble piles. Ali and Anwar made more signs. We cleared up the back yard so it could be used by the mums and babies group who use it on a Thursday afternoon.

Dawne and Marion taking calls.

Shipped more water to drivers at Go Bus.

Day 16 - more tidy rubble piles

Crew tidied up rubble piles Spencer end of Poulson St. Thanks Pavla, Andy and little Marketa, Chris and Arfur for helping. All consolidated at 10 Poulson St waiting for Civil Defense to organise to take away.

Addington Primary are open for few hours Friday afternoon for parents and kids to check the place out before opening Monday.

All the cartons of food we had at the depot has been sent to St Martins Church 50 Lincoln Rd. They have a distribution system in place so made sense not to duplicate

Tony (one of the crew leaders) and I biked around 60 streets in Addington this afternoon to visually check every job in the database and look for others need doing. Found a few more including some real dodgy chimneys that need to come down tomorrow morning. Found 4 more resident initiated rubble piles so will stick the Addington Action Committee sign on them. One street one pile.

We are getting calls from outside our patch (rohe) for jobs that need doing in Sydenham, Somerfield and Spreydon. Does anyone know if there is a residents based action group in these areas we could pass the jobs onto.

Addington Action was organised on the basis of battlefield commissions. Those who prove themselves worthy were put in charge as leaders. Everyone was given the chance. I looked for people who showed initiative, common sense, kept people safe in quite dangerous situations, led by personal example, worked hard, and were respected by the others.

Visited a different Tony at Kingdom Resources to find out about getting volunteers who are looking for paid jobs into work.

Day 15 - more rubble piles

‎2 more long drops to build today. Is Ruskin St still without loos working. If so - an Andy-Loo could be dropped into Ruskin Reserve. Just need to dig a big deep 5m hole. Posthole digger would be fast.

Drinking water bottles sent to drivers at Go Bus and volunteers cleaning up Addington Primary so it can reopen.

Currently scaling down the depot. Manuka Cottage reopening from Monday next week. Liam and Tony returned ANA trailer back to Eric Lilley.

Borrowed tools being returned to people.

Ali and his dad coming in tomorrow to finish off the last 2 long drops.

• ‎4 separate rubble piles on Ruskin St consolidated to 65 Ruskin St.
• 2 rubble piles on Burke St consolidated at 49 Burke St.
• Small pile on Fielding st being moved to Meredith/Spencer St pile.
• New pile 262 Lincoln Rd.

Just updating the laptop database of Addington addresses and jobs done etc. Turns out that since the Tuesday earthquake, we have had volunteers turn up from 50 streets out of the 65 we are looking out for. In some streets we had a very big turn out.

Cool.

Day 14 - Hazara

Jobs today are filling in the unused long drop holes. Don't want some poor soul ending up with a Christchurch chocky dip !

Also rubble piles on Ruskin St

Some low life just came in and nicked the crew lunches.
grrrrrrrr !!

Long drop now in CCC reserve at 28 Dickens St for local without working loos. Water on in street but some house connections are broken. Locals can also empty their potty pots down the big potty hole !

Long drop in Addington Park end of Meridith St for locals without working loos. A resident has been looking after it with regular scoops of lime

Andy-Loo 1, the long drop in the Addington Bush Reserve is for locals in the street who don't have working loos. Isobel is looking after it with a quick spray of Janola on the seat and lime down the hole couple times a day. Thanks heaps Isobel.

Andy-Loo 1 is open 7am - 8pm each day with gate locked rest of time.

Longdrop now in the park at St Mary's Church Square Addington. In the trees near the Sally Army side of Poulson St. Needs a volunteer to look after it.

We filled in the 3 other holes but left a spare incase the long drop hole gets filled up.

There have been some amazing people turning up to help with the work in Addington. Anwar and his young son Ali are Hazara from Afghanistan. They have arrived in NZ, 8 months ago and speak Farsi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazara_people

Anwar and Ali bring amazing skills on how to survive from where they have lived. They can teach the rest of us a lot. They have been building the latest set of long drops with lots of innovations. Ali is a 9 year old room 11 pupil from Addington Primary School and show wisdom beyond his years. I want to arrange a special ceremony for him at the school to give him a book.

Day 13 - txt

We keep track of our crews real time by simple text messages. When they get to the next address on the list, the crew leader sends the address as a text. Thats all. A big white board at the depot tracks the location of each crew. This makes it real easy to send more volunteers who turn up.

Simple as!

When we have Addington licked into shape, our work crews want to go to Aranui to help as an organised army. Hopefully by the end of this week.

Day 12 - jobs and safety

Local MP Jim Anderton and Wigram Labour candidate Megan Woods turned up this morning delivering a big carton of work gloves, dust masks, and disposable gloves. The carton of stuff was very kindly donated by Brenda Hill of Farbricell from Pakuranga in Auckland.

Thanks heaps! Need to keep the workers safe. safety first !!!!

They got the tour of the depot.

Christchurch Central Mission are delivering bulk non perishable food every 2 days to the depot. Its being used to feed the workers and by the welfare committee to supply pensioners who are cooking at home for other households.

Many of the AA volunteers are unemployed and want paid work and have proved that they can do it. Chatting at 'smoko", I have discovered that many people have been driven out of the workforce, because they needed a different job because of health problems like a bad back, or RSI. Their former employers refused to shift them to other tasks. They are all good workers with great attitudes.

Phil's crew built more longdrops today to be distributed. Student Volunteer Army will send a crew each day from Monday so getting the dispatch system + maps very efficient. Did a recce of Addington Central and Addington East streets by treddliee. 20 rubble piles on streets.

Day 11 - living in the real world

The crew was back making long drops today to drop off around Addington Parks. We moved into Manuka Cottage proper - so now have a call centre room, kitchen for feeding the workers, and a staff room for people to take a break. The back yard is now a big workshop.

Stu's crew cleaned up rubble today from more fallen chimneys - rubble moved to neat piles on the streets. One neat pile on each street is loads better than lots of little piles every where. Volunteers are out with lawn mowers getting de-rubbled lawns cut so kids can play safely.

A list of all the rubble piles will be passed over to Civil Defense in a few weeks so they can be picked up with a digger and taken away. A social solution that works for all homes is better than leaving people each to their own resources which is fine for rich bods but no use in the real world

Day 10 - welfare committee

Today we got bulk food supplies to send out to the people cooking for others.

The welfare committe has grown and will be able to get to a lot more elderly and very sick to check on them and do what ever is required.

We are dispatching water to gobus drivers so they can keep working in this heat.

Now covering 65 streets.

Day 9 - high winds

Has anyone got a printer that works that could be donated to the Addington Action Committee. My home office got trashed so I can't loan that one. It needs to be dropped of to 45 Dickens St, Addington between 9am - 3pm. or phone me 9800902. We have a laptop WinXP, so might need the drivers. Its for creating master copies. The Sally Army across the road are doing the bulk photocopying for us 
Got home and the side gate has just carked it. EQC job! The aftershocks and high winds today.

Our local MP Jim Anderton and Megan Woods have rattled up stuff for the crew today. Dust Masks will be here tomorrow.

Local Green Party members turned up to help

Uni Student group dealing with welfare turned up with a pile of food - sent them to Mrs Chick who is cooking for Feast Place - bless her heart.

We need a Public Works programme to rebuild Christchurch to soak up the 50,000 unemployed. Proper wages not Taskforce Green nonsense!

It was bloody lucky that I was able to grab spades from Addington Bush Society and field gear stored at Bush Telly to kick things off here.

Sally Army and Manuka Cottage then came up with gear. Manuka Cottage is our work depot. the Farmy Army came yesterday for chimney demo work. We stayed away from all chimneys today because of high winds, hopefully back on roofs tomorrow.

Day 8 - Addington Action Committee 2

Addington Action Comittee is organising residents in Addington to take down chimneys, shift rubble, security against looters, hugs, lost pets, meals for oldies. Meet 9am 45 Dickens St each day ready to work. 338-1613 (9am-3pm), 9800902 (3pm-8pm).

Found a laptop that still worked. Installed Office XP and raced in with it to keep track of dozens of jobs and sort out any confusion. Still need a working B/W printer.

Day 7 - chimneys chimneys

Another 30 bods today arrived at Manuka Cottage. Sent them out tearing down chimneys and making more rubble piles. Now covering 30 streets.

No computer arrived so went to plan B. Do it myself.

The biggest problem for me was not having a leadership structure in place - that takes time to develop. So some people got frustrated not knowing what to do etc.