Lauren | Whanganui, Manawatū-Whanganui

“I’m really grateful that I’ve got a job that I really love, and that I can make a difference in our community. For me, that’s really important, for the way that I work. But there’s so much in my life that I’m grateful for.

I’ve got a wonderful family. I’ve got two beautiful grandchildren, and another one on the way, that are all part of our life. Our whānau is really important to us, and so we spend quite a bit of time together, and I would have my grandbabies with me, my mokos with me, at least once a week. I might pick them up from Kohanga, or they’ll come over and spend some time with us. We generally try to eat as a whānau together once a week, and so I’m really grateful that I’ve got a strong family that all live here, in Whanganui, including my dad, who is 85, and still well enough to be around and part of our lives. We’ve got a new baby on the way, a new moko in December, and he’s just been busy making wooden toys for this new baby. I’m really grateful that I’ve got a Dad, and that my mokos have got a great-grandfather that is around and still able to participate in their lives.

The things that we’ve been able to do with my dad over the years, as young children he encouraged us to do a whole lot of stuff ourselves, and so, we would make Christmas presents every year. One year we screen-printed some shirts. Another year we made macramé hangers. We made candles another year. So, I’m really grateful that he’s given us that experience to be able to do things together as a family, and I guess with his leadership we made lots of things together. He made a cot for  my first child, which was 32 years ago, and all of my children used that cot, and my mokos have used that cot, and so, he has been able to work with us together and make things that we’ve been part of as well, and encouraged us all to do that sort of thing. So, all my kids are quite handy, and they’ll go up and spend time in the shed with him. He’ll just give them some advice on what they might need to do, just that opportunity to be able to do that stuff together. He’s really good at being able to make you believe that you can do anything, and so I guess you give it a go, even if it’s something that’s really difficult to make. The fact that he provides that support is really important.

You wouldn’t look at him and think that he would be your typical role model. He’s very quiet and if you’ve got something you want to talk to him about, and this has happened to me over the years, he allows you to talk through your problem and realise the outcome yourself. He provides the guidance, but he doesn’t give you any direction. He doesn’t say, ‘look this is what you must do’, or ‘you made a silly mistake’, or anything like that. He just allows you to talk about, to lay it all out, and to realise it yourself and then come to a conclusion yourself, but providing it in a supportive way. That’s been really important for me all my life. I like to think that I can do that with other people, as well, just be that listening ear, and provide advice if they want it, but also be there and supportive with guidance if they want or need it as well.

I grew up in Hawke’s Bay and went to primary school in Whitcliffe Street Primary, in Napier and then we moved to Gisborne for a couple of years, and went to Gisborne Central School there, which was a really interesting change in our lives. I loved it in Gisborne. I love the East Coast, love the beaches. I left there when I was about 18, moved around a little bit, went to Australia for a long weekend, and stayed five years, and then moved back to Whanganui. I met my husband in Australia. He’s from Whanganui, and we came back here and got married, so I’ve been here about 32 years now.

My title is Community Wellbeing Manager, so we’re a Safe Community here in Whanganui, an international Safe Community, and I’m involved in the that work, but really lucky that under the community wellbeing, I can get involved in a whole lot of really cool stuff in the community, which is really exciting.”