Christmas Appeal 2023: How Northland locals can help Bald Angels Charitable Trust

To celebrate Christmas, every day for 12 days the Advocate is sharing with readers a Northland charity or organisation that supports those within the community. In turn, you can learn how best to help them this festive season. Today we speak to Bald Angels.

More than 1000 young people in the Far North will receive a gift courtesy of the Bald Angels Charitable Trust’s annual toy drive for kids.

The presents are part of the trust’s Angels Christmas project, which also includes gifting kai boxes filled with meat, fresh vegetables and groceries to help take the pressure off whānau.

Trust founder Therese Wickbom said the generous Northland community this year donated around 2400 gifts in the spirit of manaakitanga. They sorted the large and small toys to create enough gifts for 1300 children.

Wickbom was incredibly grateful to the community for their donation efforts.

Without the community’s help tamariki from families in need may be missing out on the festive season.

This year, the need had doubled, Wickbom said.

“We can’t fix it all.

“But we can give them a ball and kai this Christmas.

“And the Angel partner social services will deliver them and wrap extra care and resources around their whānau.”

With help from a group of dedicated volunteers, the Bald Angels has supported a number of initiatives over the years including the Keep Our Kids Warm Campaign, which sees the collection and distribution of warm clothing, blankets, socks, beanies and shoes from the wider community to families in need.

The Bald Angels partners with police, Plunket, iwi social services, Women’s Refuge plus health and education providers to make sure donations get to the families who need them most.

In 2020, former All Black Jack Goodhue teamed up with the Bald Angels and launched the “Summer of the Mullet” campaign which saw Northlanders of all ages grow mullet hair-dos and culminated in an event in Kerikeri where the public decided the fate of Goodhue’s famous locks.

Though Goodhue got to keep his mullet, the public voted that he have it permed and coloured pink.

The event raised more than $30,000 for the Far North charity’s KiwiMana Kaiārahi programme, providing trained mentors for at-risk youth.

Although this year’s toy drive has successfully wrapped up, Wickbom said the trust always needs continued support.

People are able to volunteer as youth mentors, ‘Project Angels’ - who help organise fundraisers and more, plus trustee positions. Alternatively, donations are also accepted. For more information visit baldangels.org.nz

Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering health, food, lifestyle, business and animal welfare issues.