Helping Christchurch

A nice story in the Herald:

We’ve watched her dancing for charity and caring for the sick on television, and now actress Miriama Smith is getting her hands dirty to help out earthquake-hit Canterbury. …

The 34-year-old insists it is not a publicity stunt, but a way to repay a city that has been good to her. She spent three months in Christchurch last year filming “and I felt really close to the communities here”.

A very cool thing to do.

Smith tried to contact authorities in Christchurch about how she could help best, but found the city officials in “lockdown mode”. She got on a plane anyway, and when she arrived on Sunday morning, she had a contact for organiser Sam Johnson, who had been rallying students on Facebook to help in the earthquake recovery.

Mr Johnson picked her up at the airport and she was soon on her way to Kaiapoi, a severely damaged township just north of Christchurch.

I found this very amusing. Sam seems to have morphed from just being the Facebook student co-ordinator,to the overall volunteer labour force co-ordinator – all without an office, a salary or a title.

It does show that our most valuable assets are not buildings, or money, but people.