A Little Ray of Giving wraps up for 2014

A Little Ray of Giving is wrapping up for another year and nearly 300 offices across Australia and New Zealand helped raise 15,000 gifts for disadvantaged families this Christmas.

In Australia Ray White partnered with Rotary and in New Zealand, Ronald McDonald House to make a difference to children and families that need it most this Christmas.

A diverse range of charities were identified through local Rotary clubs to deliver the presents to.

Ray White Double Bay and Ray White Lower North Shore worked together to collectively raise enough gifts for every child in NSW in state care - children and teenagers without families. Around 580 presents were donated to the campaign.

Ken Snell of Ray White Allambie Heights was the founder of A Little Ray of Giving. A Rotarian himself, Ken has been running his Christmas campaign for several years. This year, the Allambie Heights team engaged with their local school and contributed 523 gifts to multiple charities: Northern Beaches Interchange, Royal Far West, Bear Cottage, St Johns Church, Single Mothers Support, CatholicCare, Mission Australia and Taldumande Youth Services.

Ray White Hamilton in NSW partnered with "Jenny's Place" a secret refuge for women and children that are abused and need to move into emergency or crisis accommodation. Seeing incredible generosity from the community, the team were able to collect 462 presents for both the children and mothers affected.

Ronald McDonald House supports housing for families with seriously ill children.

Ray White Dargaville sent away 150 presents to Ronald McDonald House but there was one gift that was extra special. When a member of the community brought in a big cuddly white teddy bear, the office affectionately named it “Mrs White”, the Teddy was given to a special little girl from Dargaville, Ellie Weight. And the photo of her cuddling her new bear says it all!

Ray White Lower Hutt ran such a successful campaign, they lost count of how many presents were donated. The generosity of the Wellington community filled up a van with gifts and office principal, Rupert Kemeys dressed up as Santa to deliver the presents to the Wellington Hospital Children’s ward. Watch their video here.

Ray White has run this initiative across Australia and New Zealand each December since 2012.

View the full album here.