Me & My Job
Independence Collective, Changemaker Beer Product spotlight: Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic): “The Ginger Beer has got a really nice kick of ginger” – Neville changemakerbeer.com
Right: Neville Pugh hard at work
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T h e I n d e p e n d e n c e C o l l e c t i ve wa s formed by four adults with intellectual disabilities. Neville Pugh is the member of the collective with Down syndrome, and takes charge of the public speaking and promotional side of the Collective’s Changemaker Beer enterprise.
Me and My Job - Neville Pugh (37) I’m a beer brewer for Changemaker and I like working. I like working in a team and having really good views and comments. When we first came together in June 2018, we all sat around in this room here. We had a taste of different beers and we chose the one that we liked. It was George Duncan’s beer – the Pale Ale. We liked it, so we went back to Duncan and said ‘this is the beer that we want’. We named the beer the Neville Beer! I like talking to people about beer because people in the community want to know what the beer is like and how we became a team of four to work together and to spread it right around the nation of New Zealand. How we became a team of four – that’s a long time ago now! – we knew each other, I flatted with one person and then the other two were our friends.
The first time I ever had a beer was the Neville Beer, that was really nice. It tastes like Christmas. It’s a great experience working with Phil, out there, going round bars, cafes… it’s just been great working with the old boy. We’ve done a few events in the past. The first one we did was the Kāpiti Food Fair, that was really awesome. We only had one beer. Then we re-branded to Changemaker, then we did Beervana with a beer, apple cider, and ginger beer. What’s important for me is to make a lot of money! And I would like to be on the Rich List. The best thing about Changemaker is working in a team. It’s been a great experience to learn beer, selling, sales, ginger beer, apple cider… and I would like to see us in the future to take it worldwide.
