our place
Community spirit at work Plans are underway for the Green Bay Community to get a fresh, new look later this month at a Neighbours’ Day on April 18. It is hoped volunteers will show willing to water-blast the fence at the back of the house and paint it black, and sort out overgrown grass in the playground and rebark it. Funding is being sought to replace the slide and old play equipment but in the meantime the call is out for someone to spray paint all the outdoors equipment in multi-colours and give it an exciting and fun edge. It is a few years since the outside at the house had a makeover so once the basic work is done, art created by local children in a school holiday programme will be lacquered and placed permanently on the newly painted fence. The house has also become an official drop-off point for the I Used To Be initiative that re-purposes inflatable pool toys into bright and fun water-resistant bags and accessories, says house co-ordinator Sara Mihaere. Set up in Auckland by arts facilitator, Nina Darrah, the company keeps unwanted inflatables out of landfill by re-purposing them into hardy, splash-proof bags. “It might be an old paddling pool or toy, but as long as it’s clean and not mouldy, the product can be dropped off here,” says Sara. (I Used To Be donations can also be dropped off at EcoMatters in Olympic Place, New Lynn or its Rosebank Road location.) May’s activities at the Green Bay Community House include a clothing swap on May 13, in conjunction with Plunket and the charity One For Her which collects sanitary products for women in need. Sara says that for a gold coin koha entry, people can drop off five items of clothing to the community centre on Friday, May 12 and receive five tokens which will equate to ‘shopping’ money to purchase donated clothes. “It’s a really good and sustainable way of updating your wardrobe as well as being a good fund-raiser and helping worthy charities. It doesn’t actually cost you money -- you donate clothing and receive tokens to use to get yourself a wardrobe that’s new to you.” Anything left over from the clothing swap will be donated to local charity and hospice shops. Neighbours’ Day is Saturday April 18 from 10am at Green Bay Community House, 1 Barron Drive, Green Bay. All volunteers welcome. There will be a sausage sizzle. Phone 09 827 3300 or email gbcommunityhouse@gmail.com for more information.
“The playground is awesome!” Children at the Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School are really enjoying their recently completed playground. The school was selected to be part of The Trusts Million Dollar Mission in 2019 and, after a community-wide voting effort, was the recipient of $40,250. An opening ceremony was held recently (but before the arrival of Covid-19 and the new ‘social distancing’ recommendations) to thank everyone who made it happen and parents, teachers and students gathered to express their gratitude and celebrate.
letter Dear Editor, Thank you to The Fringe for your story on the Glen Eden Pataka Kai Project in the March 2020 issue (Community kindness growing and prospering) and to your readers who responded so positively to it. Soon after that issue came out, I received some wonderful calls from people in catering and bakery businesses offering us a wide range of food including breads, rolls, slices, cakes, muffins and savouries. So many members of the community benefited from these generous offerings which are continuing. Likewise, we have seen such a lovely response from the community in general. The need throughout the community for food donations to help those less fortunate sadly continues, but it is heartening to see how much kindness there is around us and that can only make us a 'richer' society. Thank you again to The Fringe and its kind and generous readers. Heather Tanguay, Glen Eden Pataka Kai Project Email heathertanguay@slingshot.co.nz or call 027 699 5480
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The Fringe APRIL 2020
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