Murray Kirk, 63, was recently diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. His shearing mates swung into action to engage their community to help the family which had given so much of their time and effort in the past..
Former shearing run owner, now police rural liaison officer, Paddy Henderson said the fundraising shear-a-thon to help Murray Kirk and his family exceeded expectations with more than 20 shearers taking part and giving 8300 sheep a haircut in 24 hours from Friday.
People turned out all through the 24 hours to show respect for Mr Kirk and to make sure the Kirk family got the holiday they deserved, Mr Henderson said.
"There were shearers that arrived at midnight to jump on and shear for two or three hours, which was really good, you know?
"And they hadn’t been on the piss. They were just so sober. They just wanted to come out and do something.
"The other guys, some other shearers arrived at four in the morning, before they were going to go to work, just did a run. At one stage, looking down the seven stands, there was at least three shearers on every stand waiting to get on and have a turn."
Being there for the whole time took its toll, he said.
"I hit the wall about 5am on Saturday. I live in Cromwell, and I set my alarm at about 4 on Friday morning to go shearing at 7, and it was 5am on a the Saturday morning, but someone gave me an energy drink, and that was good as gold."
"We probably could have done another 1000 if we had dry sheep."
Farmers paid to have their sheep shorn and all the labour was donated. An auction capped off the event and about $120,00 had been raised so far.
However, money was still coming in.
"When we finished at lunchtime on Saturday there was $113,000, but then I was talking to a farmer and he had five bales of wool he’s going to donate that would be worth about $1400-$1500 a bale so that’s $7500."
Mr Kirk started working for Mr Henderson as a 16-year-old.
"And then he went away and got an accountancy degree, but he chose shearing rather than that. And he took over, when I joined the police, he took over the shearing run."
Scotty Armstrong joined Mr Kirk in Mr Henderson’s former run and took it over 15 months ago. The fundraiser was Mr Armstrong’s idea and his wife Trina had played a huge part in collating everything and advertising the event , Mr Henderson said.
The Kirk family, which included four children, had never had an overseas family holiday as he was always too busy working and now they would. The family had been community stalwarts and involved in numerous organisations including Becks and Omakau playgroups, Central Otago A&P Show, Dunstan rugby, Matakanui hockey and combined rugby, Omakau playcentre, school and toy library.
One shearer came from the North Island and another flew from Australia to take part. Ranfurly Transport gave them the use of two trucks and trailers and other companies supplied drivers, Mr Henderson said.
While it was sad reason to be raising money the event had a great feel to it.
"It was just such a really good community feel about it all. Probably 200 people arrived for the auction and the last hour and a half. I said to a few, you know, in 10 years’ time, people will still be looking back and thinking, well, we’re glad we’re a part of it all, you know. "
