Ruthie Lawrence, one of the two local women behind The BRIGHT Project in her at-home art studio, is working on her next project for Flaxmere Park. Photo / Warren Buckland
Ruthie Lawrence, one of the two local women behind The BRIGHT Project in her at-home art studio, is working on her next project for Flaxmere Park. Photo / Warren Buckland
What started as an idea to create more colourful spaces for the community in Flaxmere quickly took off on Facebook community pages, with everyone wanting to know how they could join in.
Now known as “The BRIGHT Project,” friends and founders Ruthie Lawrence and Jo Reyngound have worked hard to unite people and turn Flaxmere Park into a colourful hang-out spot for the whole community.
To Lawrence, The BRIGHT Project is healing. It’s a space for healing, whether through music, art or just meeting people and doing what you can to make anyone’s day brighter.
She said, “A simple smile can make someone else’s day brighter, so that’s the whole idea behind the project: let’s pop colour into the community and make people smile.”
While Lawrence may be the face of the creative side of the initiative, she said co-founder Jo Reyngound is the brain of the operation and usually does the talking.
The BRIGHT Project group making a start on brightening up Flaxmere Park. Photo / Warren Buckland
The pair met after Lawrence posted about her idea on Facebook for the first time. While she admits she isn’t great at talking to people like the council, whereas Reyngound is, so the two rely on each other’s strengths.
“She [Reyngound] is a lovely lady, man; it’s like we connected, and I thank God that she’s met me and I’ve met her,” said Lawrence.
After the first The BRIGHT Project posts on Facebook, there was a lot of buzz around the idea on social media, with people asking how they could help and how they could join in.
The founder explained that it was awesome to see the reactions but now wants people to put some action behind their reactions.
The message Lawrence and Reyngound want to get out is that they don’t want this to be about them but want it to be about the community and others.
“Let’s change the community and teach the community by the community.”
Flaxmere locals knit and crochet art to wrap around trees in the community park as part of The BRIGHT Project. Photo / Warren Buckland
“If you’ve got a talent, that you think that you can teach one of us, then come and do it. Yeah. Jump on our page. Tell us where we can meet. And we’ll come there, and we’ll do it,” Lawrence said.
At the moment, The BRIGHT Project has classes running on Thursdays where people get together to knit and crochet things to wrap around the trees in the park.
While the project’s end goal is to fill the park with activities like outdoor chess boards, games, and themed art for people to come down and look at, what Lawrence really wants from the initiative is a brighter, safer community where people can walk through the park at night and look at the little areas under lights.
Lawrence said she wants Flaxmere to be on the map and a unique place people want to visit as Oamaru has done with steampunk.
“By creating this, we would have more people visiting Flaxmere, and we could even get our supermarket back with more people coming in,” she said.
Now, all The BRIGHT Project needs is people to join in. Anyone can check the group’s Facebook page to see what they could get involved with.
Lawrence said she is bushing for The BRIGHT Project because “I thought if I want change, I need to output action and then be the change I want.”
Maddisyn Jeffares became the editor of the Hawke’s Bay community papers Hastings Leader and Napier Courier in 2023 after writing at the Hastings Leader for almost a year. She has been a reporter with NZME for almost three years and has a strong focus on what’s going on in communities, good and bad, big and small. Email news tips to her at: maddisyn.jeffares@nzme.co.nz.
