Planet Replants Children of GRG's and Community Garden Projects

Hi my name is Sharon (Shanna) and I am a Grandmother raising a Grandson (GRG)

In my previous life before becoming a GRG I ran a small Tree and Shrub Biz called Planet Replant and I sold trees and shrubs at Markets.

My Grandson is AS,ADHD,ODD and has some GDD and FAE. He came to live with me on Valentines Day 2009 as a 3 month old baby, and its been love ever since. He is 7 yrs old now. I Home School him through Te Kura as his combination of diagnosis would make him a candidate for early expulsion and I didnt want him to go through a negative experience at school after all the hard work Iv done to get him as sweet as he is. Hunter has huge anxiety and behavior issues that he is medicated for so school was never going to work for him.

Iv had to give up the markets and my wee second hand shop because Hunter is no good with crowds and his health is fragile so going out all the time puts his health at risk so these days I sell Cuttings on Trade Me from Mother bushes I planted at home from left over stock.

I, and Planet Replant bought a clothing bin to raise funds for food trees that I could donate to community gardens etc and I set this up at my gate recently and have been advertising it on fb groups locally.

So far (Dec 2015) Iv had 3 sizable donations of good clothing and toys which has enabled me to gift to 6 local Grandchildren this xmas. 2015

Id like to be able to pay for family season passes to the swimming pool for these families.

See my updates for progress reports on this.

Earlier this year Hunter attended a camp for Grandchildren of GRG's and it became obvious that although well meaning, the staff and camp setup are not able to provide the kind of care children like Hunter need so I want to be able to fundraise toward creating a new camp for Families and GRG's who are raising children who cant go to regular camps and I have had some discussion with YMCA Wanganui and they are keen to support this by helping to run holidays for families like mine at their Camps.

Most of our children need US with them at camp and I wasnt able to stay with Hunter at the STAND for Kids camp which was detrimental to our following couple of months with his anxiety and wetting his pants etc all over again.

The aim is the family can attend these camps together and we can support each other and take turns at having some time off with our other kids whilst we buddy care each others high need children. We want the normally wired kids to meet and holiday with other families with similar structure and see they are not the only ones living in high stress families and so we can all have some support and fun together with others who understand our day to day lives and our high needs children get to go on a camp with their family unit. I have a shortlist of families already who want to come to this much needed camp.

So Im a Nanna (Im a Shanna, a little bit of Sharon and a little bit of Nanna) with many eggs in my basket and all my fundraising goes to the causes Im passionate about.

Please support my fundraising efforts.

The YMCA camp needs about $10,000 to run a pilot camp, some of which they will fundraise for. Our children have dietary issues so its not a regular camp to run food wise for a start.

At this first pilot camp we will be able to nut out what works and what doesnt.

Id like to hold these camps in all regions around NZ in the future.

The Children of GRG's locally will always have Birthdays and Xmas every year but Id also like to be able to give the Grandparents a treat sometimes too in recognition of the job they are doing and the dreams they have laid by the wayside.

Planet Replants newest interest is the new Marton Community Garden that our local Council, Rangitikei District Council, have recently donated a bit of land for and Id like to help set up the food tree side of this project and donate Heritage seed for the vege side of things but my own efforts whilst Grand in design are a slow trickle towards the real costs.

Im happy to take any donated goods and sell them on to raise the funds, Im all about recycling and Im not asking for a handout just a helping hand to speed up the means by which I can make a difference.

With your help WE can make a difference.

There is always another set of Grandparents being thrown back into caring for babies and children without notice who need immediate help.

We dont have a local support group set up in the Rangitikei especially for GRG's yet, and it would be good to get one up and running.

The National GRG.org office is in Auckland and has an extensive reach of help and advocates etc for those of us who find ourselves picking up the pieces of our Grandchildrens lives.

If you make a donation, please specify which project you want your donation allocated to.

The link below is to a Trade Me page that I run for Planet Replant and where I sell the donated goods to raise funds for the Grandchildren of GRG's.

Thank you for reading my page.