Nellis Harris is approaching her first Christmas as Rosetown Lions president with a flat deck truck in mind.
She’s hoping some generous soul in Te Awamutu might help the iconic Christmas Sleigh Raffle this year by lending the club one for two weeks in the early part of December.
Rosetown Lions president Nellie Harris wants to swell the club’s ranks during her year in office. Photo: Viv Posselt
Rosetown Lions took over the Christmas Sleigh Raffle last year from the now closed Pakeke Lions group. This will be Rosetown’s second year running the event, and Nellie wants to smooth the way for it to raise as much money as possible for charity.
The decorated sleigh, which is packed with goodies provided by Te Awamutu’s business sector, sits atop a flat-deck truck for its pre-Christmas drive through the town’s streets.
Nellie assured any potential lenders that the vehicle would be stored in a closed garage when not doing its Christmas run.
The Christmas Sleigh Raffle is one of Rosetown’s bigger fundraisers. It starts with members approaching businesses seeking goods which can be raffled during those first two weeks in December. The sleigh gets parked outside wherever tickets are being sold in the CBD.
“We sold out early last year, so we’re looking at bumping up the number of tickets this time,” she said, “and we are considering increasing the value of some of the prizes.”
Nellie’s year in office started in late July. Te Awamutu has been home for 45 years, but it was only about seven years ago that she joined Rosetown Lions.
She knew all about the value of service organisations, primarily through her service-orientated parents who had migrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands. “I saw my father on school committees … it was his way of giving back to his new country.”
Nellie grew up in South Auckland and completed training as a hospital nurse at Middlemore. She moved to Te Awamutu after marrying, and when her family grew up, she worked at Tokanui Hospital for 12 years. When that closed she moved into support work in the disability sector, initially fulltime and now across three days a week.
It’s a role she finds deeply rewarding, and one that works well with the community-oriented work done by the all-female Rosetown Lions. They volunteer their support to a variety of different organisations, events and groups throughout the year, always with a view to giving back to the community and helping others do the same.
Nellie doesn’t have a project as such for her year; instead, she hopes to bump up their numbers and keep the flow of community support strong.
