Style: December 02, 2019

24 STYLE | special feature
Image: Zoe Williams
Marian convinced her boss Mark Field to volunteer at the
House three years ago. They have been doing the night shift
once a month together for three years.
Marian Tredinnick is a firm believer in not dwelling on
things, particularly when it has to do with Canterbury’s
February 22, 2011 earthquake.
But it is the reason why the health and safety manager
volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House South Island
– a place families can stay while children undergo
hospital treatment.
She and her colleagues at EPL, a manufacturing company in
Christchurch, were thrown from their office chairs at 12.51pm
at their Maces Road factory in Bromley when the earthquake
hit. Marian also lost her home.
It was, says Marian, a bit of a rough time. But she chooses to
remember the “kindness and generosity” of people delivering
them lunches, and of their customers providing washing
machines so Marian and her colleagues could do their washing.
And so when the last Portaloo was picked up from the old
factory almost three years later and Marian got her house
sorted, she wanted to give back that which she received.
“It made me think we were very fortunate that the rest of
the country supported us as well as they did,” she says.
Marian, 59, joined what Ronald McDonald House chief
executive Mandy Kennedy calls a band of “volunteer angels”
about three years ago.
“That’s what they are. The gift of time they give us is so
valuable,” says Mandy.
With 145 regular volunteers and 1600 others ready to help
with events and appeals, about 18,000 hours of labour has
been “gifted” to the house this year, she says.
“Without these gifts of time, we couldn’t serve the
1200-odd families every year that we do. They are critical
to the success of the house,” she says.
Marian volunteers with EPL chief executive Mark Field at the
house on Cashel Street once a month. One stays overnight,
usually on a Saturday, while the other one pops down to lend
them a hand for a few hours, mopping the floors and cleaning
up the kitchen.
“They are like part of the family. When they are in doing
their night shift, the families are in a really safe pair of hands.
They have amazingly warm personalities just oozing with
compassion, and they are really fun to be around,” says Mandy.
But this year Mark, 57, is taking on the mammoth task of
cooking Christmas lunch for up to 26 families at the house.
Dry turkey won’t be on the menu though, he’s quick to
reassure. He has a plan involving two Weber barbecues.
“Marian did one for her family last year the day before
Christmas Day and it came out perfectly, so she rang me and
told me how to do it. And it came out spectacularly good,”
he says.
He feels in awe of the parents who are at the house.
“I just admire them. Time after time they cope and put
on the positive face for the kids. Parenting is tough at the
best of times, but man it must be so tough when all that is
happening,” he says.
Normally Marian would volunteer to do the Christmas Day
or Boxing Day overnight shift, as she has done in the past, but
she is due to get ankle surgery.
But she says if she is “reasonably mobile” she might “hobble
in” because, for her, the house is part of her “family”.
Image: Zoe Williams
Image: Zoe Williams
Mark Field will be taking on a bit more than just the
mopping when he cooks Christmas lunch for families
at Ronald McDonald House South Island this year.
Marian Tredinnick wanted to give back to the community after
the earthquakes, so she began volunteering at Ronald McDonald
House South Island.