Work flying along for charity

WIN-WIN: Joining in the double-header event yesterday are Warwick and Chris Dugdale of Dugdale Charitable Trust (left), UCOL Wairarapa joinery tutor Brett Tickner, UCOL Wairarapa carpentry students at rear, carpentry tutor Peter Van der Veen, and Brent Stewart, general manager Masterton Mitre 10 Mega, presenting a cheque for $15,000 to Candy Schroder, marketing and fundraising manager of Life Flight Trust.

UCOL Wairarapa threw a roof shout for carpentry students, tutors, suppliers, sponsors and benefactors at the campus building site of their latest home build for charity.

Warwick and Chris Dugdale, of Dugdale Charitable Trust, also were on hand to present a $15,000 cheque to Candy Schroder, marketing and fundraising manager for Life Flight Trust, which had been raised through the sale of a two-bedroom home built last year by UCOL Wairarapa pre-trade construction programme students.

Also at the event yesterday were representatives from Masterton Mitre 10 Mega, which has been the major sponsor and supplier for the build at the Masterton campus.

Ms Schroder said the involvement of Dugdale Trust and Mitre 10 Mega was vital to the "amazing" charity home programme.

She said the Life Flight Trust Westpac Rescue helicopter on average flies two to three missions each week to Wairarapa and there is a cost of $2500 "for every person we rescue".

"So we have enough from the charity home to launch six emergency flights for Wairarapa people," she said.

"So it really is amazing what these guys are doing with the charity homes and it's really quite humbling."

Numerous national firms and Wairarapa businesses helped deck out the home built last year with whiteware, kitchen appliances, a heat pump, flooring and household furniture and a similar generosity has been shown this year. Carpentry tutor Peter Van der Veen said carpentry and joinery students were involved with the construction this year of a 120sq m, three-bedroom home complete with interior and exterior wall insulation, underfloor and ceiling insulation, gas reticulation, and an en suite in the master bedroom.

He said students had started building in April and construction will be complete by October despite a pair of students starting apprenticeships in Masterton, with one student starting last week with Jennian Homes and another starting today with Tararua Builders.

Brett Tickner, joinery tutor for UCOL Wairarapa, said Masterton Mitre 10 Mega had been generous during the build and "almost every day they are approached for something and they just keep on giving".

Should the completed home remain unsold through a tender process, an auction would be held to sell as a home only or as an onsite property, should the home need to be shifted to be sold.