On Saturday, 12 October 2013, a group of Arupians + partners headed out to Buxton for Habitat for Humanity’s National Brush with Kindness day.

After a relatively early start, we arrived safely via coach at the house of Maria McIntyre. Maria’s house was burnt out in the 2009 fires and had work to do on her property but she couldn’t manage due to a shoulder injury. As the day progressed, the team worked through tasks involving land clearing, digging trenches to stop a shed from flooding, removing trees that had fallen across the river, splitting firewood and stacking them at an accesible location, burning off old wood and branches and herding alpacas!

The team was fantastic in getting so much work done, all with a smile on their faces!

"I wanted to pass on my thanks to the Arup team that came up on Saturday to Buxton to help Maria with her property.

The amount of work done was fantastic and Maria was so pleased to get so many jobs done on the day.

The attitude of the team was great and made our first National Brush with Kindness Day a great success and has set the bar for next year’s event."

Special thanks to John Legge-Wilkinson, Mark Hughes, Frank Gargano, John King, Georgina Reddin, James and Lisa O’Donnell, Duncan Blackburn, Bridgette Conway, Gerard Kennedy, Emma Gardner, Marinna Duffield, John Keating, Stephanie Fogarty, Matt and Bec Wash, Candace Macfarlane, Elissa Ward, David Stirling, Leann Lee and Phil Alexander-Pye for a successful day out!

If you’re interested to know more about Habitat for Humanity, visit http://www.habitat.org.au/ for more information.