From Office Bitch to Cover Girl in 90 days...will be keeping her on
Titirangi Tatler Cover Girl :Cooking for Christchurch
Early in March when this issue was in the planning stages, we thought it would be good to acknowledge the many fundraising events being organised around the place in aid of the Red Cross Christchurch earthquake appeal.
It didn’t take us long to realise that this would be an impossibility – there were just too many of them, from simple bucket collections to auctions, concerts, donations of goods and products, buskers and more. It seemed as though everyone in our entire corner of West Auckland wanted to help Christchurch in one way or another.
As this issue goes to press, the fundraising continues but we can’t resist telling you about one of the projects which added an innovative local slant to that old community favourite – the cake stall.
The brainchild of Laingholm resident Glenn Browne, the Great Kiwi Bake-Off involved more than 500 participants throughout Auckland. The concept was to get as many individuals and companies as possible to make cakes or pastries of their choice and get them by rail to Britomart Station by 10.30am on March 7 in time for the two-hour sale.
Headquartered in his Laingholm office, it required precision planning but as chief empowerment officer of team-building company Pureoutdoors NZ Ltd and a former chef himself, Glenn had all the organisational skills necessary.
Using social media, giving radio interviews and distributing pamphlets and flyers, the bake-off took a week to organise. Important local hubs were the Hardware Cafe in Titirangi where customer Annie Franklin marshalled ‘troops’, Huia with Rachel Alford collecting the baking and transporting it to the Glen Eden train station, as well as Laingholm where Jessica Moorman gave up days of her time to make the event happen. “Without Jessica this wouldn’t have happened,”says Glenn. “She worked tirelessly ringing cake shops and co-ordinating people.”
Several locals were also among the 25 – all dressed in chef’s hats and aprons – at Britomart where 12 tables were “absolutely chock-a-block” with goodies ranging from vegan slices to a wedding cake.
“We raised $8210,” reports Glenn. “We pretty much had to close the doors on our business for a week and it was hard work co-ordinating all the people involved. But I’m so stoked we were able to do our bit to close the north-south gap and to help the people in Christchurch. It was just fantastic.”
(Courtesy Titirangi Tatler, April 2011)
