Tractor trek to turn wheels for wellbeing
Aim to give free mental health educational resources, videos to families and schools
Just two weeks after a protest convoy made its way through Central Hawke’s Bay heading south, a smaller and slower convoy has chugged through heading north: 12 tractors accompanied by a Humvee and a little red Postman Pat replica van.
The Feelings for Life Tractor Trek 2022 is travelling from New Plymouth to Napier and home again, visiting schools along the way, giving free mental health educational resources and videos to families and schools. Along the way they are fundraising to produce more of these videos so more children can have access to these valuable resources to help them manage their big feelings.
Cat Levine, who founded FFL, would usually spend time touring schools presenting a Think and Be Me programme to children, but Covid-19 restrictions mean that school visits have been adapted to outdoor meet and greets followed by online presentations.
“It’s not the same as face to face but we want to keep spreading the word about the need for children’s emotional literacy,” she said.
“Kids, no matter their social, geographic or economic circumstances, find a sense of stability and comfort when they understand their feelings.”
The trek is a family affair and includes Cat’s dad, Phil Aish, who initiated the trek to raise funds for Hospice, and her sister, Jo Watt, who is the official trek photographer.
Cat was involved with her father’s Great NZ Tractor Treks where 15 tractors drove from Bluff to Cape Reinga to support Hospice in 2016 and 2018. In 2020 she partnered with mental health campaigner
Mike King and her dynamic presentation style, along with her bright pink hair, proved a hit with students at schools they visited.
Cat says all children, no matter their social, geographic or economic circumstances, find a sense of stability and comfort when they understand their feelings.
This led Cat to create Think and Be Me — the online and face-to-face programmes that launched in June 2021.
While Think and Be Me is putting smiles on the faces of our youngest generations in many schools, Cat has been concerned about being unable to deliver the programme to children at schools that can’t afford to cover costs. Her experiences touring a range of schools as part of charitable events, such as the annual Tractor Trek, revealed strong potential to make a difference. That potential coupled with some approaches by corporate sponsors in 2020, led to the creation of Feelings for Life (FFL) Charitable Trust in 2021.
Rotary is sponsoring the 2020 trek and Cat said the plan was to gather as much awareness and funding support as possible to keep providing free mental health support to children in New Zealand schools.