A garden full of fundraising fairies

Free spirit Penny McPherson uses her skills in landscaping to maintain a delightful fairy garden on her property, bringing smiles to the faces of children and adults alike. While families stroll around finding hidden figures and characters, the Nelson Tasman Hospice donation box in her garden quietly raises vital funds all year round. In under six months the box has raised nearly $500 at no additional effort to Penny on her garden maintenance. “No matter the money raised, everything matters,” Penny says.

Penny’s ability to turn children’s ideas into real life magic has seen the garden expand from when it started during COVID-19 to ‘bring some joy’. Penny switched her donation box at the end of 2023, saying, “I put it to the community and they favoured Nelson Tasman Hospice. Everyone knows about it and wants to talk about it, people have an experience with Nelson Tasman Hospice and want to share it.” She notes that Nelson Tasman Hospice staff are ‘positive’ and ‘helpful’ and have made her feel as though her work is really benefitting the charity.

Nelson Tasman Hospice’s services are free to patients and are funded to approximately 52% of their operational costs by Te Whatu Ora Nelson Marlborough, leaving around $3.5M a year (or around $9,600 a day) to be raised from our community. Each dollar raised locally stays in our community and supports people across the region when they are at their most vulnerable.

Penny urges the community to host fundraisers for Nelson Tasman Hospice, saying, “We have to fundraise for them. We are it. There’s no magic fairy. We have to keep such an important cause running, it will impact us if we don’t.” If you think you could help fundraise, or would like to have a Nelson Tasman Hospice donation box at your fundraiser or business, we would love you to join our compassionate community. Please contact fundraising@nelsontasmanhospice.org.nz.