Kia Ora our Shoebox Christmas whānau!
We appreciate your patience and willingness to help out and be a part of our little community making a big difference!
Every year one of our biggest challenges is matching the number of people who want to help, with the number of schools and services who have asked for help. Some areas we have more gifters, in others we have more tamariki, of course it never matches perfectly.
Lots of our schools have also found it harder this year to find staff and time to complete their part of the mahi which isn’t as quick and easy as we’d like it to be, yet.
To make sure we have enough gifts ready for those which won’t be delivered by gifters, we have to go through a pretty complicated process. Thanks for bearing with us as we improve things. Our new website next year will fix a lot of these challenges.
We’re hoping this explains the process for most people so you don’t need to email since we’re very focused right now on rematching and finding back-up gifters - and with the thousands of people taking part across the motu, it’s hard to keep on top of all the emails between our little team.
Over the next few days:
On Tuesday, Arita will be unmatching gifters who haven’t clicked Confirm - this is so we know who isn’t able to get their gift delivered.
We’ve sent emails and texts to these people, but we know that sometimes these are missed. If you missed the message don’t panic, you can still take part as an emergency gifter as below.
Tuesday we’ll be sending out a call for emergency back-up gifters, this will be based on where we have tamariki who don’t have a confirmed gifter.
Instructions on how to let our tamariki know we’ve got their back
If you have signed up already and are unmatched and want to help with an emergency backup gift by delivering or posting your koha by Monday 5/12:
You will need to sign up again, we won’t ask for verification though. This is the only way we can be sure to only match gifters who can help with emergency koha, and not the others who have signed up earlier and not been matched, but can’t provide an emergency koha urgently.
Make sure you click Confirm as soon as you’re matched.
If you have not signed up yet and can get a gift delivered by Monday 5/12 (posted or delivered):
Please sign up for one of the areas below, and select ‘I don’t mind’ under Areas.
(areas coming Tuesday afternoon)
If you have already delivered your gift but forgot to click confirm, and have now delivered your koha:
Please login & click Mark As Delivered.
If you have been matched, forgot to click confirm, and were then unmatched - and hadn’t already got your koha ready:
Please sign up for one of the areas below, and select ‘I don’t mind’ under Areas. Please sign up again using a different email address.
If you have been matched, forgot to click confirm, and were then unmatched - and HAD already got your koha ready:
Please ask in the Facebook group for the address to deliver your koha, and label it with the age and gender - we’ll use this as a back-up gift. If you don’t get an answer in the Facebook group, please email us on support@shoeboxchristmas.co.nz
We’re so grateful you’re willing to lend a hand! Our tamariki all deserve a choice Christmas!
Kia pai tō wiki – have a good week!
Te Kāhui - Vyaan, Jayden, Arita, Telson, Tiara, Uru, Maia, Karnia, Lisa, Sam, Joachim and Pera
PS if you have any pātai/questions, please email us on support@shoeboxchristmas.co.nz
Happy to do a couple in Murupara
Havent been matched to extra help offering for Murupara matched to a Paroa school one which I delivered but offering to do a couple of extra for Murupara if required