First 'birthday' charity dinner at Ruapehu Hotel

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 6, 2 July 1985, Page 4

First 'birthday' charity dinner at Ruapehu Hotel

Sixty members of Raetihi's business community attended a charity' dinner to celebrate Iris , and Ray Parr's first year j in the Ruapehu Hotel last week. In addition to celebrating j the Parrs' first anniversary, j the dinner also raised money , for charity. Ten dollars from j each of the tickets bought by ' the people attending the function was donated to the j intellectually handicapped. President of the Wanganui Branch of the IHC, Mrj Harold E. Wynne, spoke to the diners about the IHC, its structure, fund-raising activities, history, needs and plans. He began by pointing out that the IHC is the largest voluntary organisation in New Zealand. The Wanganui Branch of the organisation covers approximately the same area as the Wanganui Hospital Board. It has the largest area of any branch in

New Zealand. The IHC ownsa farm and has a contract to produce kiwifruit — current production is 1 00,000 trays per year but, "in four years time," Mr Wynne said, "we will produce half a million trays." The Wanganui branch is responsible for 1 53 intellectually handicapped people, and a further number attend workshop training units. The branch runs a 39-bed hostel, the oldest resident of which is 67. With the care the I HC can give, the average life expectancy of intellectually handicapped people has increased. The average life span used to be approximately forty years, he said. "One of our greatest problems is finance," said Mr Wynne. The Wanganui branch's target for this year is $90,500. "We hope to achieve this from bequests, raffles, donations, saies, charitable dinners such as

this, and gifts." Mr Wynne gave the guests an idea of how generous some individuals are by explaining that the Wanganui branch has never bought a potato since 1971. "They are supplied by a farmer — he must have given us millions of them." Additional funding comes from the Government, from fees paid by some of the people the IHC helps and from an annual appeal held during February." Parents of intellectually handicapped children and volunteers also assist the branch, but Mr Wynne said that as their members of staff become more professional, it is difficult to maintain parents' involvement as they believe their offspring are being sufficiently cared for. The aim of the IHC is to improve the quality of intellectually handicapped people's lives, said Mr Wynne. A goal is set by the staff

for each individual and when that is achieved, another goal is set. Last week's dinner in Raetihi was Mr Wynne's last official engagement before retiring last weekend. He has been involved with the IHC organisation for 19 years. The Mayorof Raetihi, Mr Garrick Workman, thanked the Parr family for their efforts in bringing the people of Raetihi together for the charity dinner and said other people in the town should follow suit and hold more events such as this. Mr and Mrs Parr were very pleased with the way the dinner went and said the hotel's staff had worked very hard to cope with the large number of people. Mrs Parr added that she was also pleased with the way the hotel's new chef, Chris Bain handled his first big function in the hotel.