Lisa’s Wish Charitable Trust—6 November 2016

Lisa’s Wish Trust is an organisation conceived by the late Lisa Knapman-Smith, a wife and mother who passed away from cancer in 2009 at the age of 29.  Lisa’s vision was that the Trust would provide support and activities for young children whose parents or caregivers have been afflicted by cancer.

Since 2015, Lisa’s Wish Trust (LWT) has held weekend camps for children in the summer and a spring community day at CUE Haven and today we had a great group out for the spring community day.

The team from LWT included Are, Avery, Cecilia, Cort, Ian, Isaac, Jeremiah, Liz, Michael, Nikita, Rosemarie, Seb, and Tahnee.  Also joining us this morning were our friends and volunteers Adrian, Ajay, Fiona and Jing.  It was great seeing old friends and meeting some nice new people.

The group arrived at nine and we got acquainted over morning tea.

Mahrukh gave an overview of the CUE Haven project and Thomas gave a description of the work planned for the day and a safety briefing.

Because of the nature of the work planned for the day, we broke the teams into three groups. Over the course of the morning, as teams finished up their tasks they moved to other areas to help out.

One grouped worked on landscaping around the front gate. After winter and a wet spring, lots of weeds had grown up and the area was very messy.

The first task was to clear away the weeds.

Once the weeds were cleared, the team planted some miniature flax bushes to fill in the area.

As a result of the team’s hard work, the area now looks much better and it a nice welcome for visitors to CUE Haven.

Another group worked in the orchard and around the cottage.  This is another area that had a lot of weeds after winter and they first spent time clearing up the area and getting rid of weeds.

Once the area was clear, the group planted some hardy native ground cover plants which will spread and fill in the area.

At one point Fiona found a skink and it made friends with Avery.

The group worked their way around behind the house to the other side, continuing to weed and plant.

It was a large and challenging area to work in but thanks to the team’s efforts it looks very much better.

The third group worked clearing weeds in the Lisa’s Wish Grove.  The first challenge was to clear weeds from the walking track leading into the Grove.

They also trimmed back vegetation that had grown onto the walking track.

Because the Lisa’s Wish Grove in is the wetlands, we often have to deal with morning glory, which is a climbing vine that can smother plants.  The only way to deal with it is to pull it out by hand. Members from the other group came over to help out and everyone did a great job of clearing the Grove.

We ended the day at noon with a relaxing lunch and some chocolate cake.

After lunch, Ian helped a young family that had lost a beloved husband and father to cancer plant a kahikatea as a memorial tree in the Lisa’s Wish Grove.

The group then went for a short walk around the wetlands before heading home for a much needed and well deserved nap.

It was a wonderful day and in just a few hours the group accomplished a lot.

Our many thanks to Rosemarie Knapman-Smith, trustee of the Lisa’s Wish Charitable Trust, for all her help with organising the day.

And a BIG thank you to all the members of the Lisa’s Wish Trust team and also Adrian, Ajay, Fiona and Jing for giving up a Sunday and coming out to help us with the weeding and landscape planting.  We really appreciate your hard work and all your efforts. And thanks to you, CUE Haven is looking refreshed.

It was great having you all out and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thanks again!