Kia ora,

Nathan and I wanted to send out a huge thank you for all of your help with facilitating the collection of donated school supplies for Findlay's trip in October. There was such a huge show of generosity from Findlay's fellow students and whānau in his Tī Kōuka pod and Team Tahi. Just wow! 

Findlay has expressed his thanks in his letter (see photo).

The stationery supplies alone would have been incredible enough, but to then see the further 7 box loads of library books, dictionaries and early reading sets donated directly by the school, was beyond anything we ever imagined. Thank you so much - they will be so appreciated by the communities that receive them.

By pure coincidence, we recently received a notice from one of the islands that the Heritage Adventurer will visit when we are onboard - a very remote island called Nissan Island in Papua New Guinea. The island has six primary schools and a secondary school and is currently in desperate need of a range of school books and supplies for their children. The donations we have received will definitely be able to fill many of the gaps that they identified and more - therefore we plan to donate around half of the supplies here, with the remainder going to two islands in the Solomon Islands - Nendo Island and Vanikoro Island. Both of these islands are very isolated and relatively unsupported by their local government.

Findlay has really enjoyed the donation collection experience and is very excited about getting to deliver these fabulous supplies on behalf of his school and friends. There will definitely be lots of pictures taken and we look forward to Findlay being able to share these with everyone upon his return.

Thanks again,

Robyn and Nathan Russ