Thank you for supporting our Buckets of Love Campaign 2024. We are delighted to announce that we raised an amazing $50,193 for EACH of our three charities – Pillars, Nurturing Families and Pet Refuge.

Your donation was matched dollar for dollar by both Milford, and the Milford Foundation -that’s a huge impact you’ve helped us make this Christmas.

Pillars supports tamariki and whānau of people in prison to creative positive futures. Their main objective is to build a community where every child who has a parent or caregiver in prison or serving a community sentence, has access to support and appropriate services. Pillars mahi consists of programmes across wrap-around social work services for whānau and mentoring for children.

Nurturing Families offers a variety of services and programmes designed to support parents and children in the community. From Crisis Packs filled with essential items to our diverse community programmes, their aim is to empower lives, build resilient communities, and nurture the potential of future generations.

Pet Refuge may seem like an interesting choice for a Christmas campaign. However, cruelty to animals is common in domestic violence, which can accelerate at Christmas. Fear for their beloved pet’s safety is one reason people, usually women, delay leaving their abuser. Most can’t take their pets with them when seeking refuge and fear they will be harmed or killed if they’re left behind.

Pet Refuge will help to remove that barrier to leaving by giving these pets a safe, temporary home with the end goal of reuniting with them with their family. Having their pet safe at Christmas is possibly the best gift you could give someone.

We will have photos in the new year of how the funds were used to assist families and their fur babies!