They came from all over New Zealand. A group of selfless, everyday farmers and country people, who drove into Christchurch’s eastern suburbs on their tractors and in their pickups, and worked tirelessly, day and night, to help the dazed victims of Christchurch’s deadly February earthquake.
They were the ‘Farmy Army’.
Federated Farmers Quake Spokesman John Hartnell says the number of hours that the Farmy army spent helping out was astounding.
"We did 3000 machine hours our communications team put in a huge effort. Our volunteers the guys with the wheelbarrows and shovels did 35, 000 hours.
“We ended up with our kitchen team cooking about 6000 meals and preparing 2000 lunches. Our operations team put in over one thousand hours of work in co-ordinating the volunteers."
John Hartnell says the Farmy Army came with one united goal - to fix a broken city. It delivered more than $1.1 million dollars worth of kindness, one shovel full at a time.
“Everybody had that one common desire and that was to go into the streets of Christchurch and help people put things right. That’s what the goal was.
"Our role became silt shovellers. Removing carpets; and digging holes up in people’s backyards and all sorts of things; but really our focus was just to make a difference.”
