Kindness wins! UNSTOPPABLE SARAH'S FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

From collecting cans to winning awards, the charity queen remains humble

- Elise Cacace

After founding The Kindness Collective and changing thousands of lives across Aotearoa, West Aucklander Sarah Page has received the recognition she deserves, with the charity winning the New Zealand Community of the Year Award.

"I didn't expect we would win," Sarah humbly admits. "One of the charities we were up against is so incredible and I just expected they would win. Then halfway through the night, I thought, 'What if it's us?' and started jotting notes down on my phone in case I had to give a speech. It turned out I did!"

For onlookers, the accolade comes as no surprise.

"The last two-and-a-half years have been insane," tells Sarah. "We now have six regional coordinators around the country and a community hub in Auckland's Mount Eden. We've also contributed more than $7 million worth of money and resources to people in need across Aotearoa since 2020. It's just been nuts."

Adding to her busyness was the Auckland floods and February's Cyclone Gabrielle, which kicked The Kindness Collective's urgency up a gear.

"The floods hit Auckland on the night of Friday, January 27, and the next day we immediately opened the hub and sprang into action," Sarah recalls. "Since then, we've put about $1.4 million worth of money, food, toiletries, bedding and new resources into the community, and have also had trucks of secondhand items distributed as well.