A life of sacrifice
Jamie Allen is the Taranaki Daily News Person of the Year 2017.
Jamie Allen gave up his job, his family sold their house and they launched into the unknown.
They wanted to build a retreat, a time out space for anyone who is going through trauma, suffering or at risk of suicide.
For Allen’s wife Suzy selling the house was ‘‘terrifying’’.
‘‘When we first started talking about it and we had to sell the house it was scary, because having a house was security. It was a huge leap of faith and it took me a while to get my head around it.
‘‘The first six months, for me, was getting on board and understanding how we could take such a risk. But I’m really glad we did. It’s amazing.’’
It took a while to get the retreat up and running, Suzy says.
‘‘For so long it felt like we were getting nowhere, but we look back and think three years was not long. It’s great to be at this point now.’’
The Taranaki Retreat opened in March 2017 and for Jamie’s and his family’s sacrifice, inspiration and hard work in running the retreat he is the Taranaki Daily
News Person of the Year for 2017. Allen held off challenges from four other worthy nominees – John Herlihy, Jan Brown, Valentine Fernandes and Shane White.
The whole Allen family, including daughters Roxy, 10, Katy, 16, and Danii, 21, are a huge part of the retreat. Everybody shares the space and the family have to make some sacrifices to make that happen, Jamie says.
‘‘The retreat is about getting involved in each others’ lives to the extent that we live together in the same environment, hang out together, have meals together, get to know each other completely on a level. That means sharing dinner with whoever might be there each night. Sometimes that’s a whole lot of fun. Sometimes it’s a little bit oooh, when things unpredictable happen around that table. To make it happen the whole family has to own it.’’
And the involvement of the children is a major part of the retreat’s ‘‘healing magic’’, he says.
‘‘Because there’s something reassuring about Roxy’s presence. Though she is very shy, she is great at making people feel at home when they’re feeling shy.
‘‘And Katy has quite an unusual approach to life – big heavy metal fan – and there’s something about her style that helps people who are maybe a little unconventional just to feel they’re no different.
‘‘Danii has got this lovely way with people, making them feel at home and doing some baking.’’
Danii, who is studying at Victoria University in Wellington, comes home for holidays and weekends and finds a whole lot of random people in her house.
‘‘And I think, ‘OK who are all these people?’ because this is my house, but no one knows me and I don’t know anyone, but they’ve been here for a week or two so it’s their space as well,’’ she says.
But they have a good mix of spending time with other people and family, Danii says.
And she enjoys getting to know people who come from all walks of life. Danii is also involved in the retreat in another way.
Jamie says if someone is interested in staying at the retreat someone from the team goes and visits that person in their home to have an initial chat to see if it’s the right fit.
‘‘Danii does those visits in Wellington where she is at uni.’’
After one visit Danii was asked if she was based in Taranaki or at the Wellington headquarters, he says. ‘‘Danii is the Wellington headquarters and that’s based at her flat at uni. It is a family affair like that.’’
In typical Jamie style he reckons the award should go to the community.
‘‘I really feel the award should have the whole of Taranaki inscribed on it. I do feel it’s an acknowledgement of the whole community and what every person has done to build this retreat. I don’t think this could have happened quite the same anywhere else. It’s a really uniquely amazing place. People roll up their sleeves and do it. They keep on giving.’’
❚ The Taranaki Daily News would like to thank all our nominees for the Person of the Year. You all make our community so much richer and dynamic and it is our honour to be able to recognise that in our own small way.