We are Open!

Yes the community drop-in centre had a wonderful opening on Monday.  It was a great first day with many members of the community and supporting services attending.

A special thanks to Rau for attending to bless our space to make it ready to care for the community.

Huge thanks to the Kaiwaka Cares committee who have worked tirelessly to get this up and running.  In case you are not aware they are:  Rhona Vickoce, Helen Marsh, Scott Dalziell, Iris Kelly, Sarah Cristini, Glo Treadway and Janine Boult.  Also many thanks to the many members of the community who have contributed items to make the drop-in centre more homely so that the people of Kaiwaka have somewhere to come together and enjoy each other's company.

Of course none of this would have been able to happen without the tremendous support and encouragement from Yvonne Brown.  Yvonne is the amazing woman that runs Kate's Place and we are so happy to be working alongside her and all that she does for the community of Kaiwaka.

The drop-in centre will be open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am to 2pm.  Feel free to pop into our cosy space, have a cuppa, read a book or help out with the puzzle.

Next week we will be adding a computer to the room.  This will be available for the community to use to access the internet.  We do ask for a small koha for using this to enable us to provide this for the people of Kaiwaka.

If you wish to book the space to use for your group outside of our opening times please contact us at caring4kaiwaka@gmail.com.

Community Social Space - Drop-In Centre Opening!

The elves have been busy getting the drop-in centre ready to open.  It has been wonderful the support from the community that we have been able to get things ready for opening.

We can't wait to show you the space. Below is a sneak preview of the room.  It's scrubbed up really well and I'm looking forward to it being put to good use!

The grand opening is on Monday 20 July 2015 at 10am.  If you can't make it down to see us on Monday don't worry you won't miss out.  The centre will be open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am to 2pm.

Look forward to seeing you soon!

     

Are you are a volunteering super hero?

National Volunteer Week is on! There is a place for you to volunteer, he wahi mohou hei tuao.

Alot of what is done in our community relies on volunteers to make it happen.  These heroes of Kaiwaka are the ones who work tirelessly for others and are often forgotten.

Unfortunately there are not as many people volunteering as there are jobs to be done.  What you do to help others could be something little or something big.

As it's National Volunteer Week look out for opportunities to assist others.  These are just some ideas on things you might want to do.  Can you think of others?

• Your neighbour is sick with a cold so you could offer to pickup supplies from Jaques so they don't have to go out.  
• A friend needs help keeping up with their gardens so you could volunteer to mow their lawns. 
• Know a new parent, offer to go over and do dishes or fold laundry (trust me that can be an amazing help in those first weeks of getting to know your newborn.
• Hold open the door for another person.
• See someone struggling to carry their parcels up the hill and you know they live near you, offer them a lift home.

We have many volunteer heroes in our community.  Some are obvious, ie Fire Service and St John Ambulance staff.  Others less so, ie the people working in the Op Shop, our librarians, our sports coaches, and the team who put together the Bugle are great examples.

So open your eyes to the volunteers around you, and if you are able to help ... do!

Volunteering has a massive impact on Kaiwaka, do you have a volunteer story to share? 

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We are in need of more ambulance staff for our St John station.  Are you willing to help?  Follow this link to find out more.

Always wanted to ride on a Fire Engine and fight fires and help others?  Our volunteer Fire Service is always on the lookout for more to join their team.  Follow this link to find out more.

Pay It Forward

The concept of pay it forward has been around for awhile now.  Whether you know it from the book and/or movie or from an act of kindness from another the act of paying it forward has many benefits for both the person giving and receiving.

Doing one good deed for another might not seem like much.  However to the person at the receiving end it can mean the world.

As a bonus when you perform these random acts of kindness it makes you feel better about yourself and can have a positive effect on your immune system. The act of giving and receiving contributes to improving the self worth and self esteem of yourself and those around you.  It can also prevent people from feeling alone or isolated, as well as getting us out of our comfort zones.

Also studies have shown that the positive energy you receive from giving to others helps to relieve stress, which to be honest we all need in this day and age.

Paying it forward doesn't have to be something big, in fact the small things can often mean the most to others.  Examples could be:

• catch someone doing something right, if you get great service at a shop or cafe then say so 
• buy some Instant Kiwi tickets and and put them in your neighbour's letterbox or leave on a co-workers desk
• pay for the person in front of or behind you's food in the queue - even the act of paying for someone's milk can make a huge difference
• hold the door open for others
• if it's raining offer to share your umbrella with someone
• be a mentor for someone who needs your support
• clean out a cupboard and donate anything that you haven't needed or used for a year to someone else or the op shop
• pick flowers from your garden and drop them to a sick neighbour to brighten their day
• where a sign around your neck offering free hugs
• when doing baking drop some off to your neighbours 
• offer excess fruit or vegetables from your garden on facebook for someone else in the community to have

Really the options are as endless as your imagination.

So give back to those around you by paying it forward.  And you will be amazed how good karma means that good things make their way back to you too.

Being Neighbourly

One of the things I disliked about living in Auckland was that often people weren't interested, or simply didn't care, about who their neighbours were.  Even though we are in a small community there are still people who might not know their neighbours.

Three of the most important reasons why it's good to know your neighbours are:

• creating a safer community
• helping each other out 
• and the real bonus of knowing your neighbours is that you may make a new friend!

Breaking down the barriers is part of the reason behind the new community social space that we are creating at Kate's Place.

Whilst sometimes technology can hinder neighbourly relations, it can also be useful way of finding out what is going on.

On Facebook there are many groups for all kinds of interests.  Of particular use for those of us interested in knowing our Kaiwaka neighbours are:

• Kaiwaka Community - ask and answer questions, buy and sell, find out what's going on
• Kaiwaka Community Cinema - catch a movie and meet other locals
• Kaiwaka Sports Association - meet like minded people and enjoy sports at the same time
• Kaiwaka Library - expanding your mind whilst meeting your neighbours
• Kaiwaka Cares - where you can find out what's happening at the community space

Another group that also supports people being able to easily communicate with neighbours is the site Neighbourly.  This is a New Zealand website setup to try and bridge the divide and get neighbours meeting and communicating with neighbours.  

Some of you may have received a letter from Neighbourly recently.  That was because of me, Janine Boult.  No it's not a scam or trying to sell you anything it's just another way of keeping in touch if you want to join.

If you know of any other sites we should highlight or add to this list then please l

Do you want free wifi in town?

Spark currently operates a payphone in outside the telephone exchange (next to the library and church). Wouldn't it be nice if they upgraded this to a free wifi hotspot.

Locals, and visitors, would be able to get up to 1GB free data usage each a day.  This is what Spark says about who is eligible for free wifi.

Spark WiFi is free for Spark mobile customers on:

• Any pay-monthly plan (including Smart One Bill)

• The $19 or $29 prepaid packs

• Mobile Broadband Postpaid

• Spark Digital mobile plans

If you don't fall into one of these groups you can try the service on a week's free trial. After that, you can purchase a WiFi pack for $9.95. The WiFi pack will give you access to 1GB of usage each day for 30 days on Spark WiFi hotspots across the country.
You will need a New Zealand or Australian mobile phone number when registering. If you do not have a valid number, you can purchase a Spark SIM card for $5 from any Spark Retail Store

Some of our neighbouring communities, Maungaturoto and Mangawhai, have access to this at hotspots where their payphones are.  Wouldn't it be great if we could get this too!

It would be really handy to have free wifi available to pay bills, look things up online, or even just to stay connected to our friends and family.

I have asked that they consider a hotspot for our town.  It may help to get more people to request it, then they will know we want it.

Do you think this is something that Kaiwaka needs?