Cyclone Gabrielle: Jack Jensen’s Fuel Your Stoke Tour uplifts rural spirits

Jack Jensen’s passion for helping people after Cyclone Gabrielle led to the "Fuel Your Stoke Tour".

Jack Jensen, 26, has a passion for helping people.

His aim is to inspire others to live their best lives, be 100 per cent authentic, and appreciate the small things in life.

MSFT Productions, founded by Jensen five years ago, has a number of roles, including hosting events, creating content, and working to improve mental health through Spark that Chat.

The company also sells a clothing brand in Australasia and worldwide.

Recently, Jensen and his colleagues have been working to uplift the spirits of rural residents following Cyclone Gabrielle.

Having helped out on the family sheep and beef farm, which was flooded twice this year, Jensen said he knew “what it was doing to dad and my family, and being born and bred on a farm you just get stuck into the gnarly stuff, no matter what”.

Immediately after Cyclone Gabrielle, Jensen and his partner Micki established the Hawke’s Bay Helping website to assist people across the bay and connect volunteers to those who needed help.

“We ticked off hundreds of homes within three days, organised diggers, sandwiches, blankets, stripped walls and so on.”

Once the voluntary work slowed he recognised the region was facing a mental health crisis.

“We had to move fast, so we went back to people and property owners that lost everything and asked what they needed most.

“The answer was space, space to disconnect from all the bad stuff going on and that’s when the concept for the Fuel Your Stoke Tour came about.

“We wanted to make it free so there was no excuse not to turn up.”

The first event took place at Max Tweedie’s property, Hallmark Angus Stud in Tutira, in early July and was a huge success.

The Fuel Your Stoke Tour Tutira event was held at Hallmark Angus Stud.

With the help of numerous sponsors, MSFT offered free food, free alcohol, a play area for kids, live music and the opportunity for more than 200 locals to chat with others who had experienced the full force of the cyclone.

“A simple conversation can go a long way and so can a simple act of kindness,” Jensen said.

“The ripple effect can be life-changing. With the help of our sponsors, we turned a vision into a reality and did what we could to help our communities’ mental health and well-being.

“This really felt like the definition of what rural New Zealand stands for and we were just stoked to put it on and get amongst these local legends that have been through a tough time since cyclone Gabrielle.”

“It was a really cool feeling,” Max Tweedie said.

“Jack is one of a kind. From the bouncy castle and kids’ stuff to the beers with neighbours and some epic local music. We were well entertained and left the do with warm fuzzies. It was such a special thing to have hosted, with such cool people, after a life-changing few months.”

The feedback was humbling, unknown neighbours met for the first time, and there was a chance to meet, connect and relate.

Essentially they were free counselling sessions - “that’s where the real healing is done,” Jensen said.

A second Fuel Your Stoke Tour in Eskdale/Bayview in mid-July was a similar success with more than 400 people connecting.

• See www.msftproductions.net for more information. Find MSFT Production’s Givealittle page Help Us Repair Hawke’s Bay - Cyclone Relief here.