Kia Kaha Karekare

We’re hoping the sun will shine for Karekare Community Day on Saturday, 19th October from 2:30 to 5:00pm!

Join us & Connect with the local groups (Kia Kaha Karekare, Karekare Recovery, Karekare Residents and Ratepayers, Karekare Surf Lifesaving Club, First Response, Karekare Resilience, Karekare Landcare, Grow Karekare, Lone Kauri School, Voices of Karekare Oral History Project) and Auckland Emergency Management.

And enjoy some fun activities: face painting, bouncy castle, BBQ, VR head sets, veges/seedlings swaps, outside games, connect four, and more.

Followed by a Potluck dinner at the Surfclub from 6pm.

This event is organised in collaboration with our local groups, enabled by Kia Kaha Karekare and funded by The Red Cross NZ, Auckland Recovery, Auckland Emergency Management.

If rain affected on the day , we will shift to the surf club.

Looking forward to a great community day with you!

***Kia Kaha Karekare update***

A year ago, Kia Kaha Karekare Charitable Trust was created to continue the great fundraising efforts initiated by Jessica James and Shelley Lawson with the creation of the Karekare Cyclone Gabrielle Give a Little Page.
This money was committed to reimburse the road crew for material and equipment used in the road repairs undertaken immediately after the cyclone. Remaining funds from the Give a Little page have been set aside for future emergency situations and we will be engaging with the community on how best to invest the balance in the community.

Kia Kaha Karekare has since successfully been granted over $95,000 distributed as below:

➡️ $50,000 from the New Zealand Red Cross Disaster Grant including:
• $34,000 of vouchers distributed to the stickered / categorised households.
• $8,500 to purchase a generator, a defibrillator and a first aid kit for Lone Kauri School
• $7,500 to enable the community hub to run for a year

➡️ $34,500 from the New Zealand Red Cross Special Appeal Resilience Investment to fund a generator for the Firestation, some First Aid kits and a couple of Defibrillators for the community.

➡️ $ 11,000 from Auckland Council Recovery & Community Grants to fund:
• a community cyclone anniversary dinner,
• a dinner to gather and share information with the categorised households
• support community recovery efforts to develop an overall Recovery Plan (in progress).

➡️ We have also engaged in conversations with Auckland Emergency Management to further future proof our resilience and community preparedness.

We are committed to continuing our fundraising efforts to enable Karekare Community preparedness and recovery, and to support various community groups.

Kia Kaha Karekare!

We have realised the Afternoon On The Lawn clashes with “Club Day” at the Surf Club on Saturday.
As the weather looks unpredictable for Sunday, Kia Kaha Karekare have decided to cancel our event.
We look forward to seeing you all at future events we are planning, and wish the club a successful Club Day.

A massive thank you to New Zealand Red Cross for making our hub possible for the last year! This weekend we said good bye to our hub, which post cyclone has been a place where the community met, shoped, exchanged books, puzzle, stories, lollies, cuppas, warm hugs and much more! ❤️

Kia Ora Karekare!
One year ago, many of us lived what they will remember as the worse night of their life. We were all affected in some way and some of us affected more than others.
Our great community has shown amazing strength, solidarity and resilience.
Thank you to our volunteers and neighbors who came out to help.

To acknowledge our beautiful people, all the amazing mahi of our volunteers and simply spend time together, Karekare House and Kia Kaha Karekare would like to invite you to
an afternoon on the lawn at Karekare House.

Sunday the 25th of February from 2-8pm
Potluck Dinner at 6pm - bring a plate to share - BYO

Thanks so much to New Zealand Red Cross for their support of the Karekare community. 🙏

New Zealand Red Cross
Kia Kaha Karekare Fundraising Update - July 2023

We're really pleased to let you know that Auckland Transport have approved the submission to remunerate our local road crew. This means a portion of GiveaLittle funds used to support this work has been reimbursed to the GiveaLittle page.

We are also able to announce that Kia Kaha Karekare has been approved for a $50,000 Red Cross Community Enable Grant. We are very grateful to the Red Cross for their support of our community.

Red Cross has stipulated the funds be dispersed as follows:
$35,000 food and petrol vouchers. These will be distributed evenly across the red and yellow stickered properties.
$7,500 for Lone Kauri School
$7,500 for the Community Hub

The Red Cross will be working in partnership with AEM, Council Recovery, Healthy Waters and other government organisations to determine the distribution of resilience and future preparedness funds. We hope to be able to work with them to secure additional funding for the Karekare Resilience Network in this next tranche of funding.

With the high priority road access costs now covered, Kia Kaha Karekare will be consulting with the community on how to prioritise current and future GiveaLittle fund distribution.

Kia Kaha!

Thank you to the Karekare Resilience Network who facilitated the community Post-Cyclone Community survey. It was developed by Dovetail Consulting on behalf of the Resilient Karekare Network to aid future planning and preparedness for emergency events in the Karekare area.

Lone Kauri Road in Karekare is still closed thanks to Cyclone Gabrielle, but luckily it makes a perfect race track! Kea Kids News reporter Moana has exclusive access to all the crazy crashes and fast-flying adventure at the Lone Kauri Road Soap Box Derby.

Kea kids news: Kids race on closed road - NZ Herald Lone Kauri Road in Karekare is still closed thanks to Cyclone Gabrielle, but luckily it makes a perfect race track! Kea Kids News reporter Moana has exclusive access to all the crazy crashes and fast-flying adventure at the Lone Kauri Road Soap Box Derby.

Our resilient local kids telling the story of life post cyclone in their own words.

Kea Kids News: Lone Kauri kids know the power of sticking together - NZ Herald When slips from Cyclone Gabrielle caused Karekare to be cut off, families of students at Lone Kauri school banded together to rebuild their community. Video / Kea Kids News