It has been more than a year since Cyclone Gabrielle hit the Tairāwhiti region but tradies like those at Laser Electrical and Laser Plumbing still have post-cyclone jobs on their books.

“We were really busy at the time doing things like a whole lot of disconnects to make homes safe so, for us, work never stopped,” says office admin, Carolyn Andersen.

“But at the same time our head office put out a call for branches around New Zealand to do something to help, so we all had a bit of a collection.”

The Gisborne branches’ share of the fund was $3000 and they thought about what local organisations had really pulled out the stops to make a difference in the aftermath of the cyclone.

“In the end we decided to split it evenly between Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust and Gisborne Volunteer Centre, which both hit the ground running to work in their respective spaces,” Carolyn says.

“Though Laser is a national company, individual branches like ours work hard to support local initiatives and we were delighted to have been able to make this contribution.”

CAPTION: TEAM EFFORT: Gisborne Laser franchisees (from left) Liam File (electrical) and Paul Morrison (electrical and plumbing) with company admins Susan Destounis and Carolyn Andersen.