Q&A with Founder Courtney
With so many new members joining our club, we are starting a series where we chat to each our volunteer board members. First up is Founder Courtney Bennett.
Introduce yourself
I’m Courtney, and most people know me as the founder of PKC. I live in Auckland with my family, including my two young children, and I run the charity entirely on a volunteer basis alongside my mum and fellow board members Nina and Britt.
All of us have full-time careers outside of PKC, so life is definitely busy, but we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve with the time we have.
We’re passionate about doing the best we can for our growing community, and I feel very grateful to be part of something so meaningful and bigger than myself now.
What inspired you to get involved with PKC?
My connection to PKC is very personal, I was born prematurely at 29 weeks, and my parents and I spent more than three months in NICU.
I started PKC in 2016 as a practical way to support hospitals across Aotearoa. Through a colleague at work, I learned there were many knitters wanting to help, while hospitals were constantly in need of knitted items. However, people often didn’t know what was needed or where to donate. I wanted to make that process easier for everyone involved.
What began as simply organising donations and delivering knitted items to hospitals has grown far beyond anything I could have imagined. The response to our Stitching Together Aotearoa campaign this year has been incredible.
Beyond the knitting and fundraising, one of the most rewarding parts has been building such a special and engaged community.
I’ve formed close friendships through PKC, and I’ve seen others connect through the charity as well. It’s especially inspiring to see schools and younger people embracing knitting and getting involved in our mission.
Ironically, I don’t actually knit myself so this has been a completely new world for me! I’m learning something new every day and I'm quite comfortable being the organiser rather than a knitter!
What does a typical day in your life look like?
Every day is a balancing act between being a mum, working in a demanding (but rewarding) corporate role, and fitting in PKC wherever I can.
My mornings usually begin with checking PKC emails and social media for anything urgent before getting the kids organised for the day.
I then move into my corporate role, where I work across HR and communications on a variety of interesting projects. I genuinely value the skills and experience my career brings, and many of those skills also help me in running PKC.
Somewhere in between, I try to fit in a gym session and make sure I’m there for school pick-up most days.
At the same time, our PKC WhatsApp chat is constantly active, with messages flying between Britt, Nina and me about social media plans, hospital requests, emails, meetings, and campaign planning.
The work never really stops, and many evenings are spent responding to messages and keeping things moving behind the scenes.
Right now, things are especially busy with Stitching Together Aotearoa, and PKC is taking up more time than ever, but it’s incredibly exciting to see our community growing so much.
What is the most rewarding part of being involved with PKC?
One of the things I love most about leading PKC is the variety that comes with it. On any given day, I might be speaking with hospitals about their needs, organising donations, doing media interviews, connecting with knitters, or creating content for social media.
I’m constantly meeting new people, learning new skills, and being inspired by the generosity of our community.
It’s also incredibly rewarding to see how much PKC has grown and the impact we’re now able to have. Britt and Nina work tirelessly as volunteers, and seeing our wider community embrace what we’re doing and support our mission means so much.
As we prepare to donate such a huge volume of knitted items in our 10th year, it’s become a real moment of reflection for me. A reminder of the hard work, kindness, and dedication of Britt, Nina, Mum, and so many other wonderful supporters who make this possible.
