National memorial service Friday 18 February

The National Christchurch Memorial Service will take place this Friday in North Hagley Park, from 10:30am to 3:30pm. The memorial service will take place from 12.30pm onwards. It is an opportunity to reflect on recent events and remember the loss of New Zealanders and citizens of other countries.

The service will be broadcast live on television and radio, and will go ahead rain or shine.

• Read more about the service from canterburyearthquake.org.nz
• Answers to frequently-asked-questions – getting there, parking, and more information for those planning to attend.

Say thank you, and pay it forward

Strangers from all over the world, volunteers, friends, family – what would we have done without them in the past weeks? And there’s no doubt that will we be needing their continued support in the weeks ahead.

The Star and nzherald.co.nz have come up with a nice initiative for people to express their thanks to all who have helped. They have set up a message board which allows people to post their messages online – these will then be published in The Star.

This has made me think of all the people who have helped me over the last fortnight, and especially the lovely Jenni and Sarah who “adopted” me for the first couple of hours after the quake when I was feeling lost and shell-shocked.   Thank you for your support, Jenni and Sarah – you made a horrible time bearable. And, notwithstanding the impression I may have given you that day, I really don’t usually swear!

So who would you like to thank?  We’d love you to hear from you.

And if you want to “pay it forward”, why not consider volunteering?

Here are some useful links:

• The Student Volunteer Army website
• The Christchurch Earthquake Support web page on Trade Me
• The Red Cross website
• The Salvation Army website
• The Volunteering Canterbury website
• Volunteering information from our website