Alyssa Smartt and her mother, Kim Couper-Smartt, are making chopping boards to raise money for Alyssa to go to a cheerleading competition in Hawaii. Photo / Judith Lacy
Alyssa Smartt and her mother, Kim Couper-Smartt, are making chopping boards to raise money for Alyssa to go to a cheerleading competition in Hawaii. Photo / Judith Lacy
Alyssa Smartt is the first to admit she packs a lot into her days.
"I've got too many hobbies."
Her most recent addition is helping her mother, Kim Couper-Smartt, make wooden chopping boards. They are selling the boards to raise money for Alyssa to go to the Global Dance +Cheer Games in Hawaii.
Zero Gravity Cheerleading is taking two teams to the May games, which are billed as a "global event of epic proportions".
Alyssa has been cheerleading for about two years and says being a gymnast helped her adapt.
"I just found it easy to catch on to what different things meant but I'm not very good at dance because I don't smile enough."
The 14-year-old means sometimes she is concentrating so much she forgets to smile. In her first year, her serious look emerged too much, giving the impression she was forced to be there.
Alyssa loves how energetic cheerleading is and how supportive the people are. She likes being in a team where everyone tries.
Alyssa lives at Pohangina and goes to St Peter's College in Palmerston North.
Last weekend, she was in Auckland competing with other Zero Gravity-ites at the NZ Super Nationals run by Cheerbrandz.
She started doing recreational gymnastics when she was about 7 and got into competitive tumbling. She also rides her pony Pixie.
Alyssa Smartt and her mother, Kim Couper-Smartt, discuss where to put the glue on one of their chopping boards made in their Pohangina workshop. Photo / Judith Lacy
Alyssa got into woodwork during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Her mother does all the sawing and she does the gluing and finishing. As well as chopping boards, they make yoyos, spatulas, salad servers, and clean/dirty signs for dishwashers.
Couper-Smartt took up woodwork about six years ago, receiving tuition from well-known woodworker Eddie Hall.
She has converted a double garage at their property into a workshop. The family have been given recycled wood by various people, including part of the stage of the former Methodist church in Pohangina.
• To order a $50 chopping board email alyssa@spiderfan.org. You can see a range of Alyssa's products on her mother's Facebook page.
This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air
