Local charity Homes of Hope are feeling ‘blessed' after receiving the keys to a brand new Hyundai iMax.

They received the new van thanks to the generosity of One Love Festival organiser Pato Alvarez, Mike Farmer from Farmer Autovillage, and Hyundai.

Homes of Hope chief executive Hilary Price says they received a donation of $15,000 from the One Love Festival, and had been in discussions with Pato on how best to use it.

'One of our priorities has been replacing the vehicle for one of our homes, because it has been well-used and is ready for retirement.”

The old van was almost 20 years old, whereas this vehicle is brand new, and much more suited to the task of running the charity's kids around.

'It's fantastic. It has sliding doors on each side, and you can move the first row of seats forward, making accessibility to the back row so much easier. It makes putting in car seats simpler, for instance,” says Hilary.

'We were also fortunate to be loaned a courtesy vehicle by Farmer Auto Village when our old van had to go in for some servicing, which took longer than expected.

'It was a Hyundai iMax, and we saw how practical it was for our use, and how safe it was on the road.”

It's great news for the charity, who have been making a real difference to the lives of the kids they look after.

'Our kids are flourishing. We have one who won his cross-country in his year group, and another who won star of the week. He was originally meant to go into special education, which we fought tooth and nail. And now he's excelling.

'We're very happy with the way things are going, and we want to do more,” says Hilary.

Homes of Hope are currently on the hunt for more helpers, in a variety of roles. If any readers want to find out how they can contribute, call the charity on 578 9826.