advertorial
Introducing Crafted Concrete
New sandpit for school
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his week the Chronicle caught up with Andrew from Crafted Concrete to hear about his bespoke handmade concrete items. Tell us about your business. At Crafted Concrete we create bespoke handmade concrete items for the home. I work closely with clients to design and create pieces that are unique for them and locally made in Raglan. When did you open and why did you decide to start a concrete business? I started in my garage in 2020; in June 2021 I moved into my current workshop at 12-1 Nau Mai Rd. I have always enjoyed doing something creative. After making a countertop for my own kitchen, I discovered a method of creating a lighter and stronger concrete product. Following some work experience with a company in Auckland and lots of research, I decided that it would be great to be able to offer this product in Raglan and
provide an alternative to timber, stainless steel or engineered stone as options for countertops. What are the concrete services that you provide? We make countertop vanity sinks, custom made vanities with integral sinks cast in, countertops for kitchen and island surfaces, outdoor BBQ surfaces and table tops and fireplace hearths. Pretty much anything is achievable with concrete so I am open to other projects. Do you specialise? I specialise in glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) which enables me to create light and strong pieces, weighing about a third of a traditional concrete countertop. I have the ability to create a fine elegant look or a more substantial, solid look. How can people get in touch? I can be reached on 021855019. Please call and we can arrange a visit to the workshop and showroom at 12-1 Nau Mai Rd. Visit Crafted Concrete on Instagram, Facebook and www.craftedconcrete.co.nz
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he Chronicle chats to Sam from Rangitahi Peninsula.
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ow did Rangitahi and local businesses get involved to construct a sandpit for RAS? Hayley Vink from Wainui Construction mentioned it would be a great project to help finish off the courtyard for the newly refurbished B block at RAS. Rangitahi couldn’t agree more and jumped on board to help the project. Who is helping out to get the job done? Designed by Wainui Construction Rangitahi - Sponsored Built by Tom Cox on Tom Ltd – extra thanks goes out to Tom for being the main driver behind getting this completed while the kids were on school holidays. JDC Quarry - Cartage of sand ITM Whatawhata - timer supply Revital Group Cambridge – Sand supply What will be the benefits for the children? There are many benefits for children with sand play, it increases physical and sensory development and encourages
hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, creativity, imagination, and social skills. Plus, kids just love playing outside and sand is always a firm favourite. If you take the time to watch kids playing in the sand, they are often busy with pretend play and are setting up shops, roads, cooking, building towns, digging for fossils; kids' imaginations are limitless and sand play is a great tool to allow their imaginations run wild. Any other community projects on the go from Rangitahi? Yes! We have an exciting new project that we are getting underway which is much needed for a small coastal town – an indoor heated swimming pool, located at Rangitahi Penisula. Being a coastal town, it is of utmost importance that we have the facilities to teach our young ones how to swim, and also help our community stay fit and active. This project is in the initial planning stages, but we will be sharing this development as we go, and looking for sponsorship partners to bring this project to life.
COVID-19 Update from Raglan Medical Raglan Medical COVID-19 Statistics • 1211 reported positive cases to date • 6198 tests processed to date • 2510 COVID-19 vaccinations administered
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his week we catch up with the team at Raglan Medical to get an update on how things are tracking at our local medical centre. At this stage of the pandemic what adaptions to services are still in place? All patients are still screened when making appointments & again when they arrive at the clinic to ensure potentially infectious ‘red’ patients are seen in a dedicated room. This helps to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure to other ‘green’ patients and team members. What is a red/green patient?
This is the coding that we use to identify patients to keep everyone safe while in the building. A ‘red’ patient may have COVID-19 symptoms or any other potentially infectious illness. A ‘green’ patient may need to see a clinician but does not pose any infectious risk to others. What is the most challenging aspect of the situation? Constant changes in protocols, alert levels, social distancing, isolation requirements and vaccine requirements was the most challenging aspect over the last two years and, despite expanding our team in anticipation of the pandemic, the workload managing positive COVID-19 cases has been substantial. How do you expect things to change in winter? If the number of COVID-19 cases continue to decline we will have more doctor appointments available, and we will slowly start to use our waiting room again for ‘green’ patients instead of having them wait in their car. How can patients help to ensure your systems run efficiently? Our team are working extremely hard to look after your health needs while also keeping you safe from potential exposures, to
help us provide quality care, please consider the following: • Book well in advance for regular routine appointments, this may mean booking 2-3 weeks ahead to get the doctor of your choice • Keep your phone beside you if you’re waiting on a triage call • Be honest about all infectious symptoms – we will always look after you, but we do need to see you in a dedicated ‘red’ room and if we don’t know in advance, this will cause delays • Order repeat medications 3 working days before you run out • Be understanding when doctors and nurses are running late due to emergencies with other patients • Consider using telephone or video consults in cases where a physical examination may not be necessary. How do you think you have coped in general throughout this time and what do you attribute that to? The Raglan Medical team are a resilient bunch who coped well given the circumstances: no two days were the same as plans, staffing levels and patient demands constantly changed. They’re also hardworking team players who are dedicated to looking after the wellbeing of our community so
while some days were a real challenge, the team also got a lot of satisfaction of being able help patients through this pandemic. We’re very grateful for the amazing support from patients; some baked us cakes, sent cupcakes from Raglan Cakes, bought us vouchers for coffee and delivered flowers to brighten up our days. Satnam from Four Square also accommodated early and late access to his store so regardless of how busy work was, we could get essential supplies for our whanau. Dr Mike purchased a coffee machine when the first lockdown hit while his lovely wife Joan made us freshly cooked lunches every day. All these lovely gestures helped us to cope with the demands that a pandemic put on us as did our team events when social distancing rules and alerts levels allowed. What message do you want to communicate the most to our community? COVID-19 has impacted our ability to deliver services as normal and we are grateful to the patience, kindness and understanding shown to us while we managed this pandemic in our community. See the next two pages to meet the Raglan Medical team.
RAGLAN Chronicle 7