As a grassroots business, Bambooloo is all about community spirit, so when the opportunity came up for us to help a charity in need, there was no hesitation.
Working in mental health and wellbeing, Fossil Creek Farm Trust is a place committed to changing people’s lives and the trajectories that they’re on for the better. Earlier this year, Fossil Creek embarked on a project to build a community room for visitors in order to improve their services. They needed a loo, so we donated a Bambooloo! We caught up with one of the founders, Lloyd Tibble, to talk about the work that they do, their new community room and the impact our donation has had.
Founded by Lloyd Tibble and Jude Porteous, Fossil Creek is a sanctuary where people can heal, animals are rescued, and the whenua is restored. Full of native bush and stocked with an array of animals, the Farm immerses visitors in nature and addresses wellbeing concerns through animal-assisted therapy. It provides a retreat from the complexities of the modern world and helps clients find an inner calm.
Since its inception in 2019, the Farm has grown and grow, now providing a range of mental health and well-being programmes—from counseling for school children, to therapy for neuro-diverse individuals and mentorship for those in the youth justice system.
“If there’s a need, we’ll fill it,” says Lloyd.
A big part of Fossil Creek’s work is respite care and suicide prevention. Driven by empathy, the Farm takes care of those that don’t fit the criteria for government funded mental health services.
“We hate the thought of somebody not being able to get any help from anywhere. We open our doors to them and say ‘come and we will help you’. We don’t turn anybody away,” Lloyd explains.
Community involvement is paramount to Fossil Creek’s operation. As a smaller charity in the Nelson region, funds are hard to come by as most local corporates are tied up in sponsorship deals with larger, more established charities. This is further exacerbated by the government’s recent cuts to the mental health sector.
“A lot of people are fighting for the same dollars, so it’s really important that the community and the corporates get behind people like ourselves.”
Fossil Creek’s journey to creating a much-needed waiting room was a perfect example of community spirit in action, with various contractors and suppliers donating time and materials to bring the project to life.
“We were overwhelmed with the generosity of people,” notes Lloyd. “What we’ve got is way more than we ever thought we would have if we were going to do it ourselves.”
The Trust had long dreamed of a waiting room that would provide visitors with a comforting space—somewhere they could sit in comfy chairs, read a magazine or a book, and make a cup of coffee. Without this, while clients had their sessions, friends and family had to wait in their cars—on a cold winter’s morning or a scorching summer’s day, this was less than ideal.
Once Jude’s brother got wind of the idea, he quickly wrangled up Placemakers, who knocked together the framing for the room and involved Scott Construction to drive the project. From there, the project was joined by GRE Services, Ideal Foundation, Tim Miller Plumbing, Higgins, Current Generation, and Richmond Glass.
Realizing that they were in need of a toilet, Fossil Creek reached out to Bambooloo.
“We used to have a portaloo, but it was costing us an arm and leg, so we eventually got rid of the portaloo because it was too much for us to carry on with. We needed something easy to use, nice, and built for purpose,” Lloyd explains.
Fossil Creek is all about restoring the whenua, and the Bambooloo fit that agenda, also.
“We have many, many massive Totara trees on the farm and a lot of native bush that is slowly restoring itself. Part of what we want to do is to restore the streams that we’ve got here, as well. We are very blessed to have about five natural springs on the property, so everything that we do, we try to use minimal chemicals and reduce the amount of toxicity that we are producing. The composting toilet fits in with what we see as ecologically, environmentally friendly,” says Lloyd.
Both Jude and Lloyd are keen gardeners and they’re looking forward to utilizing the final compost for native plantings, putting it back to soil.
Lloyd estimates that the Bambooloo is getting up to 15 uses a day, and he says people are finding the system easy to use.
“We think it’s fantastic. I typed up some instructions in laminate and put it on the wall down there so that people understand what they need to do. Everybody is happy with it, we’re getting good feedback.”
The Bambooloo is housed in its own structure, and Jude’s put a garden arch in front of the door with clematis growing over it, adding visual appeal to the building.
With the waiting room dubbed a success, Fossil Creek is looking forward to its next lot of projects that will tackle the ecological side of things—putting in more fences along the streams and waterways, doing more rock planting and tight planting, and getting the community involved.
But what’s front of mind for Fossil Creek, is ensuring that they can continue offering their services to the community—it’s all about financial security, corporate sponsors and multi-year funding.
“The dream would be that we are financially secure—we’d have long term funders who are there for us year in, year out, and we’d know that we have that security behind us that we can actually offer people any form of therapy that they need.”
Want to support Fossil Creek Farm Trust?
Head to their website to make a donation: Pay it Forward – Fossil Creek Farm
And, don’t forget to spread the word and follow them on socials: Facebook, Instagram
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