A Berry Nice Festival for Hospice
A
super sweet extravaganza will brighten up downtown Auckland on
November 9 when Mercy Hospice Auckland holds its annual Strawberry
Festival.
Passersby will be able to pick up punnets from stalls and chat to strawberry-clad hospice doctors in a bid to raise part of the $2.3 million needed for operational costs this year.
There will also be Christmas angel ornaments, tea towels, cupcakes, strawberry tarts and strawberry plants for sale.
"It's an opportunity to bring the people of Auckland together for a good cause," hospice community liaison Verity Lee Sang says.
There will be live entertainment, celebrities to serve up ice-cream and well-known chefs Lauraine Jacobs and Annabelle White will be making a strawberry-inspired dessert.
Hospice doctor and palliative medicine specialist Pam Jennings is one of those dressing up. She says her job is "incredibly rewarding".
"People often say to me, 'Oh it must be so depressing'.
"But it's not. It's a great job and we get an awful lot back form it. We know that we are making a difference to people's lives."
Ms Jennings says her strawberry outfit is "totally ridiculous" but it's for a good cause. Mercy Hospice Auckland provides free services, including a 13-bed in-patient facility, care out in the community, a day unit, family support, education and training. It also cares for more than 250 patients at any one time.
The festival runs from 8am to 4pm in Queen Elizabeth II Square, downtown Auckland.