Fw: Boy walks to aid church where parents wed

[Guest guest]

The magnitude 7.1 quake was situated 40 km south of Christchurch where I

live and occurred at 4.35 am on 4 September, it caused major damage to some

of the older brick buildings around the city.

What was unusual with a quake of this size was that nobody was killed. Two

things helped with this, it happened in the very early morning plus, being

an earthquake prone country, we have high building standards.

Thankfully at home, things were ok apart from some minor cracking to the top

of walls.

Boy walks to aid church where parents wed

The Press

Last updated 05:00 08/10/2010

DON SCOTT/The Press

PUTTING FEAR BEHIND HIM: Cameron , 11, will walk from Darfield to

Christchurch to raise funds to rebuild the quake-damaged St 's Church in

Hororata.

A Darfield boy will walk 40 kilometres to overcome his fear of earthquakes

and raise money for the damaged church his parents were married in.

Cameron , 11, plans to walk from Darfield to Christchurch on Labour

Day, October 25, with donations going towards the rebuilding of St 's

Church in Hororata.

His mother, Bridget , said the walk would help Cameron overcome his

fear of earthquakes.

Cameron has Asperger's syndrome, a disorder that affects social and

communication skills.

Cameron took part in a school production two years ago but had to pull out

after suffering panic attacks because of the focus on earthquakes.

He learnt to cope with his fear by reading books on earthquakes from the

library, making an emergency kit and having monthly evacuation practices

with his family.

When the 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit early on September 4, Cameron was

ready for it.

" He coped really well, " Bridget said.

" Cameron just heard dad yell `earthquake', but he already knew what is was. "

Dealing with the aftershocks was harder for Cameron as people with

Asperger's liked predictability and order, she said.

" So this has been chaos. He won't go anywhere alone still, even in

daylight. "

Being outside helped calm his fear, so family walks and bike rides had

become popular.

She said Cameron's brother , who had autism, had the opposite reaction

to the earthquake.

, 8, craved stimulus, so he found the movement caused by the quake and

aftershocks exciting.

said she would walk with Cameron on Labour Day.

" It's nice to be able to do something to help out.

" Everyone's been through the same experience.

" Hopefully we can help rebuild something. "

She said it would be great to raise more than $1000, but Cameron aimed

higher, saying he wanted to raise over $1 million for the church where his

parents were married 15 years ago.

Cameron said he was looking forward to the walk and expected it would be

" easy " as he had been going for bike rides to get fit.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4209572/Boy-walks-to-aid-church-where-pare\

nts-wed