Davenport Lyons steps up with Evans Randall to help Christchurch

18 May 2011

Davenport Lyons is proud to be supporting its client Evans Randall in their efforts to raise funds to help the city and people of Christchurch in New Zealand recover from February’s devastating earthquake.

On Sunday 22nd May, two intrepid teams from Davenport Lyons along with many others are going to be climbing 30 St Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin which is co-owned by Evans Randall, the commercial property investors and managers. It is 38 floors or 1,037 steps so not for the faint-hearted! But all the proceeds from their efforts will go to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal which has been set-up by the New Zealand government to address the following areas:

Hardship and relief – winter is coming and many people have no homes, children are travelling long distances to makeshift schools and the elderly and disabled have had expensive equipment irreparably damaged.
Education – Thirty-seven schools in Christchurch are closed. Many schools are running on reduced hours with a lack of basic equipment like books and computers.
Sports and recreation – almost half of the sports grounds are unusable due to liquefaction and sink holes.
Heritage and culture - Sixteen of the 20 city libraries are closed. Every building at the historic Arts Centre was seriously damaged with the repair bill put at $100 million.
Natural environment - This includes the parks and rivers, and other parts of the natural environment impacted by the quake or its after effects. The rivers have suffered large scale erosion from storm water and liquefaction affecting water course.
Spiritual and faith - This will be directed at providing support to rebuild places of worship where such organisations lack the financial resource to repair themselves. Dozens of churches and other faith centres were ruined.
Economic revitalisation - Business has taken an enormous hit. Amongst the directly affected, there were 6,008 companies with over 501,000 employees working within the closed ‘redzone’. Already 722 commercial properties have been ‘red-tagged’ and can’t be entered at all. Other businesses in Canterbury region are suffering from reduced demand.

The Davenport Lyons’ teams include Jonathan Metliss, Natalie Wright, Marilyn Elstow, Gerald Montagu, Angharad Davies and Ingrid Arnestedt. To read more about the event please visit www.stepup4christchurch.com or if you would like to sponsor the Davenport Lyons’ teams and make a donation to the appeal visit http://www.everydayhero.co.uk/davenport_lyons.