January

Making connections: Barbara and Don McFarlane

Dairy farmers Barbara & Don McFarlane from Ashburton, have been working hard as a team for over 30 years. Farming has taken them across the country, from Southland to Morrisville, Geraldine to Ashburton, with FMG alongside them along the way.

Now settled in Canterbury, with a grown-up family and a range of hobbies, they could be forgiven for putting their feet up. But taking it easy has never been an option for Barbara & Don, who remain committed to the land, the community and each other.

So when Barbara came across the Moriah School Holocaust Button Collection campaign it was a natural reaction for her to help out. Always the first to put up her hand for any activities when her own children were at school, she packaged up what buttons she had and sent them off.

After sending off the first set of buttons, she received a note of thanks back from the school, which finished with the line “feel free to send more buttons”. This spurred Barbara into action, and she set about pulling her groups and contacts together to get things done.

From charity shops to second-hand stores, church groups to craft cooperatives, there wasn’t an organization that didn’t hear of Barbara’s button quest. Her efforts have seen her collect thousands of buttons, and make many new friends along the way.

FMG Rural Manager Alan Giles found Barbara counting buttons on the kitchen table. He was impressed with what she was doing and promised to spread the story. True to his word, Alan told everyone he knew of the Moriah School mission. Collections were organised and connections made.

UPDATE: Moriah’s 1.5 million buttons! 

"A million and a half thanks to all of you who have helped us over the last two and a half years.  The children and I are so excited about having completed this stage of the project.

It has really shown them what a bit of ambition, determination and a whole lot of help from your community can achieve.

We’ll now move on to the next step of raising the funds needed to build the memorial maze. Many, many thanks to you all."

The staff and students of Moriah School, Wellington, NZ.  Proud protectors of 1.5 million memorial buttons.

Miriam of Moriah School designed this violin with some of the buttons collected to represent music rarely being played in concentration camps.