OKE Fletcher Charity Day:

Two weekends back, we had a big Working Bee at Western Heights. OKE Charitable Trust and Fletcher Living volunteers joined Shane (our Caretaker), Nic (our Bush School teacher) and myself for a hard-out day of garden bed constructing, shovelling, chainsawing and shed and shelves building.

Our Enviro Garden and Stage Garden have both been transformed.

Here's a letter we received from Paul at OKE:

Kia Ora team,

I hope you're all rested and recovered from your efforts at the Oke working bee on Saturday. 😊

It was such a great build to kick off 2025 and, once again, an awesome demonstration of what can get done in just a few hours when a group of epic human beings team up to make cool stuff happen.

Thank you again to Fletcher Living for supporting, funding, volunteering and coffee cart/bbq on the day. Having your support over the last five years has been awesome, and we look forward to working on many more builds with you in the future.

I hope the kids enjoy their new space! 🌱😊

Here's my reply:

Kia Ora All

I don't know where to begin or how to do justice to what happened this past weekend.

I am without the words necessary to convey how incredibly grateful we all are. I shared the photos with our staff on Monday morning - they were initially greeted with gasps, then cheers.

Our kids are so excited - pairs of buddy classes (junior and senior classes paired up) will take responsibility for one raised garden each.

You all worked hard and long, and you didn't get to see the kids' reactions - but believe me, you would have felt great pride and satisfaction.

My sincerest and deepest appreciation, respect and admiration to you all.