LJ’s Garden Project: A Helping Hand from Mitre10 Mega Nelson
Huge thanks to Nelson’s Mitre10 Mega Helping Hands Program
Laura-Joy (LJ) Allan, a 21 year old who lives with an intellectual disability – is proudly living her life to the full. Last year she had her 21st, graduated from Waimea College (Special Ed) and then moved into a shared care living environment.
Last year she completed a cooking course at NMIT (one day per week), this year she is doing two classes, Gardening and Introduction to Independent Living, both at NMIT.
She plays basketball for Special Olympics (year round), and plays in the Fulton Hogan Basketball League in winter, which is exceptionally well led by Nelsons Inclusive Sports Trust.
https://www.specialolympicsnelson.org.nz/
https://www.inclusivesport.org.nz/
During the summer months, she also sails every second Sunday morning from the Nelson Yacht Club with Sailability Nelson.
https://www.sailabilitynelson.org.nz/
She is also active with Kapa Haka and trains every Friday morning year-round with Idea Services in Nelson. Last year, they travelled to perform in Wellington, this year they are headed to Dunedin.
So what else is in store for LJ in 2025
High on the list of goals was that she wanted to grow vegetables for her new flat that she shares with three other impaired ladies and a fantastic NMDHB crew of support workers.
After a quick call (late last year) with Brandon, CEO for Mitre10 Mega in Nelson, it was agreed that their Helping Hands initiative was prepared to install an all-new raised vegetable garden 8m x 2m (600 high)
So on Thursday, as per plan, ten staff, including Brandon arrived with three wagons. With the efficiency of twenty or more – they, installed a pre-constructed Garden Bed, painted the back of a shed, rewired a washing line, erected a shade sail, water blasted the fenceline, ripped out and replaced three other garden areas, and reviewed the balance of the gardens. Provided all materials, all labour, a serious amount of soil and a full range of garden care products and a stack of appropriate garden and vegetable plants – the vegetable plants LJ planted herself at the end of the day.
Laura-Joy is ‘super proud of her Garden’, the team at the flat and LJ’s Dad have been totally humbled by such a generous effort from Mitre 10 Mega. What made it really special is that the Helping Hands Team, all elected to be involved, you could see, hear and feel that they love this work of giving back and helping out. Also lovely to see the boss walking the talk, (on the tools all day), working alongside a great team.
Mitre10 Mega Nelson started this work back in 2016 (which Mitre 10 have rolled out nationally) by doing exactly the same project, a vegetable garden for a shared care living environment – after so many great projects across Nelson and Tasman over the last 9 years, it took them back to how it all started.
To Brandon, the team on the day and all the staff of Mitre10 Mega Nelson – thank you, thank you, thank you. Love from LJ.
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