What a year, eh? 2019 was one of those years where it seems almost impossible to actually sum up my thoughts and opinions on. So you know what? I’m not going to… just let the sign above speak for itself on the going ons in Christchurch – New Zealand – and the wider world!
What we’ve seen is a test of our resilience this year, and all staying on track it seems we may need to gear up for the test getting harder and harder each year (unless Greta Thunberg can actually save the day – can she? Can she please, though?)
We’ve spent a lot of this year in our personal and business lives trying to come up with new and creative ways to be a little bit more kind to the planet and the people around us; shifting our eating to be majority plant-based, turning off our electronics and lights that we’re not using during work hours, attempting to use WAY less paper (digital presentations, anyone!?), refusing to work with businesses who have harmful business offerings and practises ‘just for the money’ and actively engaging in climate change protests and adding our voice to dialogues with the government.
GIVING BACK
This year we gave back to some amazing causes and projects. A highlight for us was helping raise $1500 cash for the victims of the terrible terrorist attack on March 15th by designing and selling ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ tshirts. If you bought one of these – thank you!
For Christmas this year, we signed up to the Shoebox Christmas initiative to deliver Christmas presents to kids at low decile schools, pre-schools, Women’s Refuge, and community organisations who could do with an extra smile on Christmas Day!
It was really fun hitting the shops at Christmas time for a good cause and shopping for kids gifts – something we don’t get to do all that often. Looking down the aisles of The Warehouse’s toy section I exclaimed out loud to myself ‘what the hell is this stuff?’ to a shelf of what I can only really describe as pottles of colourful slime (apparently all the rage?) while a Grandma with an equally confused look on her face burst out laughing and responded she was about to ask the same thing but it’s what all her grandkids want so just ‘roll with it’. Sage advice..
Definitely not the same ‘Barbie Dolls’ and and ‘Puppy Surprises’ of my childhood wish lists, but whatever. Whaddya gonna do? The kids like goo, give them goo.
Image: some of the gifts we bought for kids for Shoebox Christmas! Also, please compliment me on my home-made, eco-friendly cardboard Christmas tree that I fashioned out of a massive box that was just sitting in my roof space when I bought this house… ha ha!
Don’t hesitate to get in touch in the New Year for any or all of those ideas you have bubbling out of your relaxed-holiday-brains for your business ready to be realised with a little help from your pals at G&A.
That’s it from us, we’re off on a whirlwind trip to the dark depths of the South Island for a few days then all the way up to the top for some time out in a caravan with no wifi and no cell signal – a luxury hard to come by in this industry where we rely on emails and web surfing!
MERRY CHRISTMAS from team G&A – The Giveback Agency.
See you in the New Year!
We will be taking our Christmas break between
December 20th – January 6th