Do Your Home Work

I was reading this great article form Yes! Magazine today - 31 Ways to Jump Start the Local Economy. I've come away feeling all inspired.

The ideas aren't earth shattering. As my venerable father commented, if we looked back to the time when he was growing up, many of the suggestions in the article, such as buying less, fixing things, putting down roots and being part of the community, were the norm.

My favourite idea is:

Do home work parties. Each month, go to a different household to do major home greening, a garden upgrade, or some deferred maintenance.

I can see that would be such a positive and uplifting thing to do in Mataura. The town is a little bit run down, and people don't have a whole lot of money. I would love to pull together some funding and help people to fix their homes, tidy their gardens and make the town look a little more loved. It would help create such a sense of pride in our town and community spirit.

I don't want to give you the wrong idea about Mataura. We have plenty of beautiful homes with well kept gardens that people obviously take pride in.

Wouldn't it be great if all the homes could look like that? And rather than bemoaning the fact that some people can't, or won't, maintain their houses why don't we step in as a community and help each other out?