Help Richard get off the streets and enjoy his retirement
Stoke, Nelson
As some of you are aware we crossed paths with Richard at our office, he was sleeping rough in trees. When the team found Richard he was huddled under the trees on a camp chair with a blue poncho, he was wet, cold and scared!
We had a quick meeting and decided that with the forecast for the next 4 days it wasn't an option to ignore him, so we packed his stuff and drove him around Nelson and tried to get him into some temp accommodation, this was a task that was really difficult as motels wouldn't take him due past experiences with people damaging property, and even the assurances we own a build company and can fix anything didn't help, we even said to one motel that even if Richard wanted to destroy your room he physically couldn't as he is 70 years old!! We eventually told a white lie and said he was our uncle and he has fallen out of the tree of life and needed somewhere quiet to relax, and after 7 rejections we had found a safe and dry place for him to see out the rain forecasted.
Since meeting Richard his story is hard to hear, and you cant help but think why has nobody helped him sooner, he has been living rough for the last 10 years of his life and he has not been noticed or seemed significant enough for anyone to act!! its time act now and help Richard get back up the tree of Life, his best years are surely ahead of him and we would be so grateful for anything you can spare and Richard himself is extremely grateful for all the well wishes and donations to date!!!
We are Frank Design Build (Nick, Katie, Alex, Matt, Blake, Aiden, Nicky), and Richard has been under our care since we met on the 3rd of Feb 2022
Monies raised will help Richard purchase new items to start his new path of life, clothes, furniture etc to ensure he is comfortable.
Keeping Busy!! 10 March 2022
Kia ora all!!
Sorry for the delay on an update!!
We are extremely grateful for the ongoing support, from near and far!! we have had loads of messages of support still flooding in and its so great to hear how touched people have been reading about Richards story.
Richard is doing well, he is still coming to terms with the transition of living around people, but still feels safe and is loving his new roof over his head, we catch up with his case worker Faye from housing first once a week and Faye is amazing and really cares about Richard and we are just so thankful for their support.
We also have managed to get Richard into his first consultation with the dentist to see how much work is needed for his new dentures. Richard was the perfect patient and they did xrays and full oral inspection and we are hoping to get this process underway in the next few weeks with a little luck, this will be a 6-10 month journey for Richard.
We have also had Richard's hearing tested and the practice manager Roy was just amazing, he was so kind and caring with Richard and we now have a plan to get him kitted out with the best technology so he can conversate with us all perfectly. We also had a very kind couple from Tauranga donate a pair of haring aids after reading the story and these will be used as a back up pair from Richard as they are not 100% compatible with his current level of hearing but will still improve it should his new pair fail.
The other big news was we celebrated Richards 71st birthday, it was an awesome day spent with some people such as Louis from the maleroom, Jon and Eddy from Riverlodge, his Son, partner, 2 grandchildren, fiancé and his very good friend Pam, along with a group of close friend who have supported Richard since day one!!
The day went really well, everyone chatted throughout the afternoon, we ate good food and even had lovely birthday cake donated from a good friend Melissa all the way in the deep south of Invercargill. it was a really great day and something Richard was so happy with and he said he had never had a birthday like that, so that was a huge win!!
The coming weeks we are looking at getting Richard registered with his new doctor, registering him with social housing and getting him set up with a new E-Bike, so exciting times still ahead for the young fulla!!
Cheers to you all again for the support!!