Two Christmas events cancelled

The cancellation of this year’s Christmas in the Stadium and Dunedin Community Christmas Dinner events, due to Covid-19, is heartbreaking for organiser Acts of Kindness Charitable Trust.

Trustees Grant and Anne Hardy and John Watson have run the Dunedin Community Christmas Dinner for the past seven years, and it has been a fixture of the festive season for decades.

In past years, about 500 people have gathered in the Dunedin Town Hall for Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, provided by an army of volunteers.

‘‘This will be the first time the Christmas dinner has not been held for about 30 years, since it was founded by Dave and Jean Brown,’’ Mr Hardy said.

‘‘It’s a real shame, but the situation with Covid-19 is just too difficult with the divide between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people.’’

‘‘We don’t want to have to stand at the door of the town hall and turn people away. That would be awful.

‘‘And the situation is also difficult in terms of volunteers, restrictions on gatherings and availability of facilities.

‘‘In the end, it was all just too hard and we had to make the decision to cancel.’’

The situation was equally difficult for the Christmas in the Stadium event, usually held in early December, with about half of the participants being children.

‘‘The last thing we want to create is some kind of ‘super spreader’ event, and there is the potential to do more harm than good,’’ Mr Hardy said.

The Acts of Kindness team would be making up about 2000 Christmas ‘‘goodie bags’’, which would be distributed in the community in December.

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