Kāpiti businesses give back for their first birthday

Heather Sleet and Kayla Wall are doing a birthday celebration fundraiser for Kāpiti Youth Support. Photo / Rosalie Willis

After one of the craziest years of their lives moving from home-run businesses to a shopfront in Raumati Village, Heather Sleet, of Posybloom Floral Design, and Kayla Wall, of KS Beauty Studio, have decided to celebrate their first birthday with a community give-back.

Moving into Raumati Rd after lockdown last year, both Heather and Kayla were reaching capacity running their small businesses from home.

Joining together, they opened up in the Village and after a rollercoaster 12 months, are celebrating one year.

"There have been patches of time where we've both been quite worried, where I hadn't even covered the bills, or staff wages," Heather said.

"But we would bounce off each other — when one has a low week the other one would be saying it's okay and that would change week to week," Kayla said.

"I don't think we could have done it without each other," Heather said.

"It's the little things the community have done like coming in just because they want to support us that mean so much — without that I don't know how we would have continued.

Rather than just doing a generic birthday giveaway, Heather and Kayla decided to support a local community charity in the process and raise funds while also giving away a special prize pack.

The prize pack includes a scenic helicopter ride for five over Kāpiti Island from Kāpiti Heliworx valued at over $1050, a "decadence: bouquet from Posybloom valued at $150, and a goodie box full of Cosmedics products valued at $280 from KS Beauty Studio.

"We wanted to somehow give back and say thank you to the community for supporting us over the last year as their support has been really amazing.

"After this last lockdown we had people coming in saying, 'I just wanted to pop down and support local, you gotta keep everybody in business."

"We've chosen Kāpiti Youth Support to give to as we feel like they're a really vital service for the youth in Kāpiti," Kayla said.

"We felt like most people that have grown up in Kāpiti have either used it or their kids are now using it.

"They do so many things from medical and mental health to counselling and job placement help.

"I used it up until I was 25 and I've now got younger sisters using it.

"We feel it's important to support those helping the younger generation.

"It's a charity that is local, it's run in and for Kāpiti youth."

The give-back runs until November 20, when a live draw will take place at KYS with the winner announced.

How to support
To join the Kāpiti Youth Support birthday give-back, Heather and Kayla have set up a website dedicated solely to the give-back.
To enter, head to the www.beautyandbloomskapiti.co.nz and purchase an entry ticket by making a donation — essentially an online raffle ticket. One ticket entry per donation and all proceeds will go directly to KYS.