Helping others in need has huge rewards

Tauranga father and grandfather Brian Brown has been a dedicated volunteer helping prepare the Community Christmas Day dinner at St Peter's in the City Church for the past eight years.

Mr Brown, who is in charge of all the cooking, said he finds great solace and huge rewards in helping the homeless and others less fortunate who attend the dinner

"I get a real kick out it ... it's a great feeling knowing you're helping people less fortunate than you are. It's a feeling you can't buy."

Mr Brown said in December 2004 - 16 days before his 24-year-old daughter Natasha Hayden was strangled to death in January 2005 - he decided he wanted to do something to help the homeless at Christmas, and his daughter agreed to join him.

"I've never been a big Christmas person myself, apart from dropping off a few chickens and turkeys into the Sallies but I know other people are and many have nowhere to go at Christmas. I wanted to do something but didn't really know how I could help out."

Mr Brown said his inquiries lead him and his daughter to volunteer to help prepare the 2004 Community Christmas dinner at St Peter's in the City Church.

What started with him just spending a few hours peeling spuds, the next year saw him take over the cooking after the volunteer who was doing it had a heart attack, he said.

Mr Brown said Christmas Day 2005 after his Natasha's death was a particularly hard day for him and he was so thankful to have something to do and found great solace in the volunteer work.

Mrs Hayden was strangled to death at McLaren Falls in January 2005 by Tauranga man Michael Curran, and while on bail he went on to murder Tauranga 2-year-old Aaliyah Morrissey on September 13 the same year.

Curran was jailed for 20 years and six months with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years on February 1, 2008.

Eight years on Mr Brown spends much of Christmas Day cooking and overseeing the mammoth of task of ensuring there is sufficient food to feed more than 100 hungry guests.

"Once I committed myself to doing this I just loved it and have done it ever since. I feel a bit selfish, really, as I think I get more out of doing it than the many of our dinner guests do."

This year Mr Brown and the other volunteers fed 150 people.