The Papatoetoe Family Fun day has been celebrated since 2012 and has received recognition and support from Auckland Council and Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board since 2015.
This year's event is organised by Sanstha (Hindu Heritage Research Foundation), supported by Auckland Council, Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board and funded by Lions Foundation and Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board.
The event will be held at the Papatoetoe Library Carpark on Saturday, December 9 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Local community groups have come together to volunteer in this event especially SWS (Shunya Waste Solutions), PVA (Pacific Vision Aotearoa), Papatoetoe Library, and East Tamaki Health Care.
For the first time, this event has been facilitated as ‘Zero Waste Event’ with the support of Shunya Waste Solutions’ that aims at reducing the waste to zero. The SWS group has partnered with Pacific Visions Aotearoa to achieve the zero waste goal.
The providers ‘We Compost’ has been hired for the three different bins where the volunteers will be educating every user about the benefits of sorting the waste and reducing it to go to landfill.
The food stalls will be using all compostable packaging and cutlery to reduce the waste to landfill. At the end of the event, the data will be collected and recorded to measure the waste which will give the organisers the results of how much waste has been saved from being dumped into the landfill.
The venue will host stalls for early childcare providing information loaded with some fun-filled activities for children; the District Health Board will host free health check-up for the visitors and the Papatoetoe Floral Society will demonstrate and teach flower arrangement to children and adults.
The SWS will demonstrate live composting systems educating visitors how to reduce food waste from the rubbish bins. The Papatoetoe library will be host storytelling, book hunt and colouring activities for the children. Additionally, bouncy castles will be provided free of cost for children.
This event aims to give families, especially children a place to have some fun along with some learning.
The event organised in the previous years have recorded 500-800 people attending, and the organisers expect the footfall to go higher this year.
This event is organised to bring all the cultures together with the vision of unity in diversity.
“This event is not only a fun day, but it also represents all the cultures participating and presenting their cultures in various ways of food, performances and dresses. This event constitutes health benefit programmes and educational programmes for all age groups including so many activities for children to participate and learn,” an organiser of the event said.