It should be a space to retreat, refresh and recharge.

A place that is safe, secure and free from tyranny.

Especially if you are young, vulnerable, distressed or sick.

Unfortunately this is not always the case.

Cholmondeley Home (pronounced Chum-ley) offers Canterbury children short term and emergency respite care during times of stress or crisis at home.

Cholmondeley is a place full of acceptance, caring and hope; providing support for children when their parents cannot.

The children Cholmondeley care for are aged between three-years-old and twelve-years-old. They come from families with issues ranging from severe illness, substance abuse and addiction, even death of a parent.

When Mitre10 Mega Ferrymead chose Cholmondeley as recipients of a very ambitious project to build and auction a house for charity, Fusion Homes, and Metra Panel Construction were all onboard too.

Andrew Savage, Director, Metra Panel Construction says while this project wasn’t instigated by us, it is in-line with our business values.

“We like to be involved with the communities that support us. We do good deals for Habitat for Humanity for instance because we like to give back. It’s about working with local people in need.”

Metra Panel donated approximately $15k worth of panels, walls and cladding for the 180sm, four-bedroom house.

But Andrew went one better than just supplying material.

He rolled up his sleeves, packed the Savage family and went to Christchurch to work alongside the Fusion Homes building team.

“I went with our two kids and Melissa to help. I’m not a tradesman, but I did building years ago.”

Metra Panels are supplied pre-cut to size and connect like a kit-set.

The home was built on site next to Mitre 10 Mega. Because it was ready to be transported it wasn’t tied down when the second earthquake hit.

During the quake the home was knocked off its supports.

Yet due to the remarkable strength of Metra Panels and a good Fusion design no damage was incurred by the home.

“Apart from Metra Panels being really strong, you get a superior finish too – a really nice finish inside ideal for modern designer homes or child care facilities. The joint venture opportunity was a really nice gift” says Andrew.

The profit made from the auction paid for a new kitchen at Cholmondeley. The new child friendly food space allows children to be involved in cooking there own meals – sometimes.

For more information about Cholmondeley visit http://cholmondeley.org.nz

For more information about Fusion Homes visit http://www.fusionhomes.co.nz

http://metrapanel.co.nz/installation

Opening Day

We celebrated the official opening of our purpose built factory, in style, on 15 October 2010.

150 people attended from across the country and abroad. It was a true testament to all the hard work by our team and installers. The day started with a blessing from the local minister, Owen Mounsey, followed by Pat Kingi, a local Komatua who performed a powhiri.

The cutting of the ribbon was done by Kees and Rudi from Netherville Village. Netherville was the first large project completed using the Maxim/Metra product. This project allowed Les Wykes to put money into R & D and establish the founding of the system.

The young boys from ATC, led by our very own Mohi Hiriaki performed the Haka while everyone was being seated. There were a number of guest speakers, Les Wykes, Mike Lawrence (Laminex), Grant Laing (Laing Homes) Phil Taylor (Tompkins Wake), and summed up for all by company director Andrew Savage.