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Child Cancer Foundation
On behalf of children experiencing cancer, their families and the team at Child Cancer Foundation we wanted to say a big thank you for  your wonderful Closed for Good volunteering day here at the Family Place in Auckland. Can you imagine the smiles you will bring to so many children when they recive these bright fun filled presents in hospital or at one of our Christmas parties? You have helped create a special moment during their tough cancer journey and for that we are very, very grateful.

Balmoral Presbyterian Church
Your team did a great job shampooing our carpets and cleaning the woodwork of our Church in Balmoral. Our Church looks so fresh and clean now; in fact one of our members, when they saw the result said “I didn’t think we were expecting the Queen to visit us”. A special thank you for the great job.

McKenzie Reserve
On behalf of the “Friends of the McKenzie Reserve” I’d like to thank all those who came here on Wednesday to help our project along. You were a fantastic group. We so much appreciate the huge amount of weeding and mulching work that was done in the Reserve that day. It means that all the trees planted in this season have a far greater chance of surviving a dry summer. What you achieved in a few hours would have taken us weeks. Thank you also for the track work and the old wood clearing.

Canterbury Rowing Club Inc
Oh behalf of the Canterbury Rowing club I’d like to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH for the help with painting our rowing club. Your team was enthusiastic and focused and thank to them we were able to achieve a lot more than we expected.

Scouts Tawa
Thank you very much to the workers from BNZ who did a fantastic job tidying up our Scout Hall, painted the walls and sorted the archives. As volunteers ourselves, these clean up jobs are things that get left while we concentrate on activities with the kids so it is wonderful to have an outside group come in and help us out in this way.

Across the country BNZ staff will close their stores and offices and put their collective backs into community volunteering for the day.

In 2009, 3,500 BNZ staff volunteered for Closed for Good which is the equivalent of one person working for 13 years on community projects.

BNZ staff have two days paid volunteer leave a year which they can use individually, but Closed for Good will make teams of people available nationwide to communities in a way they can really make a difference.

BNZ CEO Andrew Thorburn says, “Last year the Bank of New Zealand received 858 submissions from community groups across New Zealand.”

Community groups or individuals can make submissions from now until 26 January 2011. The Closed for Good day will run on 9 March 2011.

“We’re hoping that even more staff will be involved this year,” Thorburn says.

BNZ has set up a website closedforgood.org to keep people informed and to register submissions for projects, and a Twitter account @ClosedForGood to receive updates.

The website gives more details on the initiative, including details on the process for registering and submitting projects.

BNZ customers will still be able to do their banking by Internet, phone or at an ATM as usual. Call centre staff will also be available on the day.

If BNZ customers have unforeseen or urgent banking to do on the day, BNZ will have a skeleton staff they can call on at 0800 275 269.