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From the editor - July 2010

I�ve always promised myself that, one day, I will do Good Works: teach kids to read, perhaps, or volunteer at a hospice.

A few years back, I got fired up about becoming a youth mentor. The idea was that the YWCA would match me with a talented but at-risk young woman: I�d act as a personal cheerleader, help her set goals and so on.

I explained the concept enthusiastically to my then 15-year-old daughter, Kate. �So what will you do with your mentee?� she asked. �I�ll keep in touch by phone and text, perhaps go and watch her sports games, meet for coffee or a movie,� I explained. �Oh,� said Kate quietly, �those are all the things I�d like to do with you.�

She was right. I had worked full-time since she was little and Kate and I were chronically short on time to do the fun stuff. �Charity begins at home,� I told myself and rang the YWCA to say I was pulling out of the programme.

These days, Kate is in her 20s and happy for me to fill in my spare time without her. In the meantime, though, my mother has been widowed and any free time I have for good works, I figure, is best spent helping her ward off a stalking loneliness.

Charity begins at home, I tell myself� but, as the madly busy weeks tick by and I never call the hospice, I sometimes doubt whether my charitable efforts will ever get beyond my family. Which is why, since starting work on NZ House & Garden, I�ve been so impressed by New Zealanders who find creative ways to make their home-making skills work for the wider community.

We often run stories about people who open their gardens for charity or start home-based businesses and create jobs. But the best story of a home-based force for community good I have ever come across is on page 76 of this issue. Heather Perriam moved to Bendigo Station, near Cromwell, as a young bride in the 1970s and created a beautiful family homestead. Leveraging off the merino wool grown on Bendigo, Heather kickstarted local businesses and spread beneficial tentacles well beyond her home, transforming a whole community.

Charity may begin at home but, even when there is no time for formal do-gooding such as mentoring, people like Heather remind us that it doesn�t have to end there. Read her story and be inspired.

PS: Our NZ House & Garden Tours are, of course, a great way of converting home-making into public good. In March the tours raised $215,000 for cancer sufferers. They�ll be back next year.

Story: Jane Ussher