Community rallies to help fire family

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 595, 18 July 1995, Page 7

Community rallies to help fire family

Two weeks down the track the Windle family are slowly recovering from the fire that destroyed their home, thanks partly to quiet but widespread support from the community. Straight-out donations have made a big impact as well as things like the Ruapehu College mufti day held last Friday. Collection boxes are in

various places for people to donate including at Trustbank, the BNZ and New World in Ohakune and at Four Square in Raetihi. Ironically, Chris Windle was the driving force behind the Parapara Fire Appeal just a few weeks earlier, so most see it as very appropriate that they give to the Windle family. Monday night, 3 July , the

family left their home around 7.20pm to attend a farewell for Lois Penning who was leaving for New Plymouth. They also had their usual darts toumament and this meant that they were late leaving for home. Chris mentioned that normally there are several vegetable trucks driving up and down their road, particularly Harvey Godfrey's

trucks, but that night the trucks weren't running and therefore nobody saw the fire. The original home, which was owned by the McCann family, was built about 50 years ago and since then the home has been added to and built around. The Raetihi fire brigade's report stated that the cause was undetermined. Mrs Windle said that the most valuable loss for them was the records of their

Santa Gertrudis bull stud. To build up a pure bred prodigy takes six years - two years to produce the first bulls, which need to be weighed and picked out for their suitability and potential, then a further two years, again to consider weight, condition and another two years to bring them to pure bred level. "It' s like keeping records for a family tree before the herd can function as a stud. Records are important for future saies and on-going

breeding and weights are important as well as the recording of the bull's progress and temperament and their performance ability. Recording these details regularly and accurately is a time-consuming task and very labour intensive." As the family did not have a computer the loss of the records was quite a blow to them. Chris said they have had to rely on the Gertrudis Bull Association tp produce copies of some of the records for them..

The family have been overwhelmed with the tremendous support from the community and expressed their sincere appreciation to all who have helped. Mrs Windle said that had they been living in a bigger community or city she is sure the support would not have been as forthcoming as it has been here. They are looking to rebuild as soon as possible and in the meantime are living with Greg's mother in the family homestead.