I remember it like it was yesterday. In 2014, Graeme and I decided to become foster carers. No sooner had we completed our training than we received a phone call asking us to take a 10-year-old boy. For privacy, I’ll call him Dane.
By the time we met Dane, he had endured years of abuse, been passed from home to home, lived in a boy’s facility, and spent six years in care. When we met him, he was staying in a motel room with a minder—because no one else would take him.
He arrived with nothing but a black rubbish bag. Inside it was his entire life. The bag reeked, his clothes were mouldy, and most didn’t even fit him. The only thing he treasured in that bag was a photo of his Mum.
I posted a request on the Pay It Forward Cambridge Facebook page, urgently asking for clothing for Dane. The community responded with overwhelming generosity. They got to know me because we regularly received children with nothing, and they continued to donate clothing and other essentials to support us.
As we connected with more caregivers, we discovered a shared challenge: many children were arriving with only the clothes they were wearing or with their belongings stuffed into black rubbish bags. I saw an opportunity to make a difference by ensuring caregivers had the essentials they needed—like clothing—to provide comfort and stability for the children in their care.
After a year as foster carers, we decided to focus on newborns who had been uplifted at birth and we still had clothing donations of all sizes pouring in from the community. So one night, I filled a brand-new backpack with size 4 boys' clothing, a book, a toy, and a toothbrush, then posted it on the Foster Carers' page. It was snapped up within minutes. So, I did another one—and that was gone just as fast. That moment sparked the creation of Kids in Need. That was 2017 and I’ve never looked back.
A Givealittle campaign and an ASB Good As Gold Santa Edition award of $6,000 set us on the path of creating storage for the donated items, while requests kept coming in from caregivers asking me for clothing.
Every night, after the babies we were fostering were asleep, I’d assemble the packs. I’d take photos of what was inside and share them on a Facebook page, so donors could see exactly where their contributions were going. One man told me that his son saw something he had donated going into a pack, and he was thrilled to know it was helping.
In 2017, I assembled around 400 packs, and that number has grown every year—reaching 1,726 packs in 2024.
With your support, we’ve been making a difference for over a decade—seven of those years as a registered charitable trust. Your belief in our mission has made this possible, and we are truly grateful.
Together, we are changing lives. Thank you for being part of this journey!
Linda Roil
Founder
Kids in Need Waikato
