Volunteer of the Month

We’d like to nominate Vanessa Fox for Volunteer of the Month on behalf of the team at Pyes Pa Playcentre. Vanessa is the absolute heart of our Playcentre and she so deserves to be nominated for this award.

Over the years Vanessa has been Bicultural Officer, President and now is heading the Community and Grants area. Her latest project is to develop a proper ORCHARD for our centre. She has single handedly organised plans, got these approved, sourced and met with landscapers and designers, applied for grants, gained amazing donations, got her hands dirty on numerous occasions, bargained for mulch, and overcome many hiccups along the way. She has weaved together a sense of community by bringing the local school along for the ride and including them in the planting and ongoing care of the orchard, something to share with us at Playcentre and deepen the community links between us.

Vanessa (a self described ‘active relaxer’) not only gets things done, she’s also knowledgeable on every Playcentre related subject, she is approachable and will stop what she’s doing to help out or find the information we need. She sets up incredible activities for our tamariki all the time and has a passion for process cooking – giving our children awesome baking opportunities whilst keeping a serene exterior amongst the chaos! Another above and beyond example of her excellency is setting up an incredible weather station for our rural centre. Vanessa organises excursions, fundraisers, sprays lawns, gets up in the roof, organises tree removals and is steadily working towards her Level 4 certificate on top of her very busy schedule.

None of us at Pyes Pa can imagine Playcentre without Vanessa, she makes time for everyone and is often a sounding board to many of us on all things imaginable. She is kind. Her heart and soul goes into Playcentre and we very much hope she will receive this title as there truly isn’t anyone who deserves it more.

Thank you
Becky and Latetia
Pyes Pa Playcentre Presidents