Plunket thinks big

Tawa-Linden Plunket staff have caught the renovation bug, and hope to follow the creation of a nurse room with a $ 250,000 replacement of the old building.

Nurse Vicky Perris says a second nurse room was created in May from an old kitchenette for $1000, transforming staff flexibility by allowing two Plunket nurses to work on the same day, .

Now staff and volunteers want to fundraise $250,000 to demolish and rebuild their Linden Ave headquarters.

On the wish list are a deck, a covered play area, a big meeting room, and smaller private rooms where social services can run clinics. Mrs Perris would like to recreate the warm, welcoming feeling achieved in the renovation of Cannons Creek’s new Plunket building.

Bringing the toy library inhouse is another wish – the library is now in Oxford St.

A baby boom in Tawa makes expansion a priority, Mrs Perris says. Tawa is a growth suburb for young families and three babies ‘‘is the new two’’, she says. Last year 180 new babies came through the centre.

Tawa- Linden Plunket events co- ordinator Shonali Ellwood hopes events such as quizzes and clothes sales will build the charity’s bank balance over the next couple of years.

Enough money has already been raised to commission initial engineer’s reports of Plunket’s land, Mrs Ellwood says.