Omar David Garcia Hoyos passed away eight years ago, and every year since then his family and friends have been remembering and celebrating his life with volunteer days at CUE Haven. Omar’s siblings, Vanessa and Hernan organized yet another wonderful volunteer group on Saturday.

Friends and family on site today included Omar’s family members Alba, Omar, Vanessa, Hernan and Emi as well as friends Andrew, Lizzie, Melissa, Rosie and Yolanda.

People started arriving around 9.30 and caught up over morning tea. 

We welcomed everyone and then Thomas gave a description of the activities planned for the day and a safety briefing.

The plan for the day was to do some autumn maintenance.  We broke into two teams. 

Thomas took one team out to trim vegetation along the boundary fence. The work involved walking the fence line and trimming back any overhanging vegetation that might be a temptation to the neighbour’s cows and to inspect the fence as well. 

We started at the bottom of the property and worked up.

The group worked their way up to the top of the property and enjoyed the great weather and views.

It was challenging work and everyone’s arms got quite a workout and the teams managed to clear the entire northern boundary fence. Well done!!

The last step was checking the hot wire to make sure the fence was working.

Once at the top, the group visited the viewing platform and Vanessa stopped to visit the puriri tree she’d planted when her daughter Emi was born.

The second team went with Alba and Omar to trim vegetation that had grown over the roads and boardwalk over the summer.

Hernan and Melissa joined the group as well.

Emi and Miah also helped out!

After lunch the group took a leisurely walk to the wetlands to visit Omar’s memorial tree.

Because of other commitments Troi and Stephanie could only visit for a brief time but joined in on the walks. 

It was a great day of remembrance and fellowship.  We want to thank the Garcia Hoyos family for their friendship and continued support of CUE Haven and for organising the day and for again bringing their amazing friends to help out.

And a BIG thank you to everyone for giving up your Saturday morning and coming out to help. You have all made a major contribution to CUE Haven. It is always great seeing old friends and we really appreciate all your hard work and continued support.  And as always, we enjoyed the many interesting conversations. We very much look forward to seeing you all again soon.

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!