April 13, 2026 • 17 mins
For over 40 years, IHC has raised money to support people with intellectual disabilities and their whānau in rural communities through the calf & rural scheme. Farmers donate livestock (and virtual calves, too) to IHC who use the proceeds from their sale to raise vital funds. As a principal sponsor, PGG Wrightson wants to make sure everyone gets involved with Pink Week!
Joining the conversation to tell us how you can make a difference is IHC NZ National Fundraising Manager Greg Millar.
For more information about IHC, visit: IHC Calf & Rural Scheme | PGG WrightsonFor more information about Pink Week, visit: IHC Calf & Rural Scheme | PGG Wrightson
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
You're listening to blue shift diary, a podcast about and four
our farmers and growers brought to you by PSG rights and my name
is Milton Monroe. I'm your host and technical team
manager. And this week I am tickled pink
about our next guest. For over 40 years, IFC has
raised money to support people with intellectual disabilities
(00:31):
and they're far now and rural areas to the Cafe and rural
scheme. Farmers can donate their
livestock or people can pledge your virtual careful lamb to
help raise vital funds for I. This cause is near and dear to
everyone inside PG Wrightson's hearts, and as the principal
sponsor, we want to make sure everyone is taking part in
Penguin. Joining the conversation is
(00:52):
national fundraising manager forICC New Zealand, Greg Miller.
Welcome to the show, Greg. Hi Milton and thanks for having
me looking. Forward to it and pleasure to
have you on board. So let's start really broad and
tell us about the ICC. What?
What is it you do? I'd say it's been around for
seven, ohh, well almost 80 years.
(01:15):
It helps supports people with intellectual disabilities and
their families in every community around New Zealand and
does a lot of work in rural communities around New Zealand.
Do you find there's a differencein what you do with the rural
communities than what you do with maybe with our city folk?
Where does it, you know, 80 years is a long time and in our
(01:38):
logo is something in your community.
People who live in rural communities really understood
the importance of in your community more than other any
other community around New Zealand.
And they've had a close connection with IHC Bright from
the beginning, you know, people like Succulent Meats who had no
(02:01):
connection, you know, no family connection to HCC just got
involved right after he retired and not as a celebrity
involvement. He was on, he was on one of our
local associations, Antiquity. He, he went down to get a young
guy out of one of the institutions, which was what UHC
(02:24):
was all about, that young peopleor anyone should not be locked
away in an institution. They needed to be in their own
community with their family, friends and neighbors around
them. Now imagine this young guy, I
think his name was Dino, actually suddenly going to rugby
(02:47):
games with Sir Colin Meads, you know, And while Colin had a big
year at the end, on the end of the table, he'd be sitting there
having a Coca-Cola listening to conversations about cola means
escapades to everyone in the back as people would come
around. And but that's in your community
(03:09):
and I think country, you know, rural people got it so much more
clearly than anyone else. And also they got in behind it
through the CCAF. It was just the calf scheme 44
years ago now. It wasn't calf and rural, but
(03:31):
dairy farmers really thought this is something I want to
support. I want to make sure that Dino
who, whoever it is, can live with their family in their
community, get the support they need to.
And then I see really built up to make sure that each of those
(03:54):
people got the support they needed and the families too,
because, you know, the families are the ones that have to
shoulder a lot of the, um, obviously the support for a
young person with an intellectual disability, but it,
it's transformed the lives of a lot of people with intellectual
(04:16):
disabilities over those 80 years.
And I just wanted to say that that rural community had a lot
to do with that and really got in behind and made sure that
this could happen. It has always been a strength of
the rural community that they isthat real sense of, of
(04:39):
togetherness of, of community. It's a great way to sum it up
and best word to probably use there.
And it's been fantastic they've been able to to bring XC into
that community. Let's talk a little bit around
Pink Week. What is Pink weekend?
How can people take part in this?
Well, the interest, you know, PGG writes and you've had a few
(05:00):
names over the years, but right at the very beginning, this was
your thing. The livestock agents and people
got in behind it with the farmers, made things happen,
built up our list of farming. Yeah, I mean, we're sorry I'm a
(05:22):
city folks, but most of the people ohh, see we're Wellington
based and things like that. But we have, you know,
volunteers in every community around the country.
We have mostly parents. They make sure we stay in line.
And PGG writes and got them behind that, created something
(05:48):
that they cared about as staff and as some of your customers,
you know, got in behind it, particularly the dairy
customers, really, you know, dairy farmers just got in behind
and said we want to do this, we care about it.
And Pink Week has come in more recent years.
(06:11):
But it was such a brilliant idea, guess to say, hey, what
can we do to really show that we're in behind this as well and
give people an opportunity to join in as well.
Not just the dairy farmers that are already connected to the
scheme, but everyone and our staff and teams, you know,
(06:33):
around other customers. Is there a way we can join?
And, and I mean, I, I have to say I thought, ohh, yeah, okay,
that's a good idea. Yeah, well, it was, it was a
brilliant idea because it came from the chief executive and.
The best? Ones exactly, and then it just
(06:56):
you guys really got in behind it.
You even there was some the weekI saw the logo change to pink
for a bit and you know, I'm surethe blue shade could even become
the pink shade for a week. Could probably make that happen
actually. There you go.
I mean, there's something about it that just shows, hey, we
(07:18):
care. We won't, you know, we, we want
to help support this. It's a really vulnerable group
of people. This is a good cause.
And going pink is kind of a nicelittle way just to show that and
give people a chance to join. No, it is a fantastic week.
(07:39):
I certainly know it in my Homebase at the Invercargill
store. Everyone gets into the swing of
it. We have a fantastic morning tea
and raise a bit of money for forI HC along the way.
I've seen some pictures, Melton.There's people come out and
pink, pink wigs and. Hey, look, I cannot possibly
comment, but I plan on taking It's taking the world by storm
(08:02):
this year. I have a now I have a bright
pair of pink boots. They will be donned possibly,
well I can't spoil the rest of my outfit year, but it will be
something to talk about. Let's talk about the IACC calf
and rural scheme. So.
And how many calves and lambs doyou get donated every year?
(08:27):
Well, I mean like the calves andlambs, it's, it's around two
2302 thousand 400 live ones. And um, you know, and then we
have increasingly a number of virtual calves or virtual, you
know, things that come in as well.
(08:47):
Let's dive into that virtual carfor a little bit as well.
So what, what really caused the virtual calf system to, to, to,
to come to life And, and could you explain a little bit around
what a virtual calf is? Because my mind is boggling
here. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was, it
was interesting because some, itstarted even before Mycoplasma
(09:10):
Bovis, but that really was the impetus to say, hey, how can we
get more people to join who havedifficulty at this stage
donating a live calf? Um, but it started before that
with some farmers. I know the story of the first
farmers, it said, um, I think the, the, the wife of the couple
(09:36):
said, actually I don't like raising these calves.
Lot of work. They, they can be a bit of a
hassle and, and, and you know, we do appreciate that there is a
hassle. It is a lot of work and people
take a lot of care and we love it.
But what they have done is, and then they've just kept on
(09:58):
donating to two calves virtually.
And we said, ohh, yeah, okay. Back then it was about $300 a
calf. And so that became, rather than
physically getting a calf to us,farmers could also just choose
to donate a virtual CAF. Interestingly, in COVID, there
(10:20):
were people, city people and others.
And you know, the, the wonderfulJamie McKay got in behind it and
got quite a few city people to say, ohh, I'll donate a virtual
cap. And the good thing is also I
think is there is opportunity todonate virtual from other parts
(10:42):
of the sector. So lambs, for example, um, and
um, I think, you know, is there any reason why people who
farmers, who, or people in ruralcommunities with deer or, um,
raising crops or, or all sorts of things virtual?
(11:03):
Darling. Yeah.
And I mean, we just picked that $300 amount because it related
to a calf. But in some ways it's quite a
good amount for people to make ameaningful, important gift to HC
that hopefully, you know, it's tough times, but you know,
(11:29):
hopefully it's affordable. And one thing we do say at
moments like this, people do go through tough times.
But when times are tough, the actual thing, it's the toughest
on the most vulnerable in some of these people with families
with a child with an intellectual disability can
(11:49):
really struggle most more than most of us at times like this.
So I think if we can do anythingto get people outside of the
dairy sector, because the dairy sector have really done their
part for 44 years, it would be wonderful if Pink Week could
(12:10):
start getting people to think, yeah, I could do something.
Tell me a little bit around someof the programmes that this
money goes to support. Just give an idea for a
listeners thinking about where their donation goes and what
their donation can help actuallywhat it means to to some of
these families. Well, I actually it's been in
(12:32):
every community around New Zealand and particularly in
rural communities and we have touched over 3435 local
associations with that. Some of the donated money goes
through to them each year. They're people who know local
(12:54):
needs. You know it's not about and it
will be different for each community.
If you're in Ashburton, if you're in the Waikato, where we
have really strong local communities, they reach out and
help families they know in thosecommunities.
The other part of it is we're doing some amazing work with
(13:21):
families through sibling camps, which is for brothers and
sisters of children with intellectual disability that
they go away, they have a camp, they have great fun because
often they miss out on the attention because the attention
has to go on their sibling and there's a lot of things they
(13:42):
have to go through and often they don't.
They're not the centre of attention and the family going
away together, having a great time.
So that's making it happen. And what's happening is we're
able to do this in a lot of rural communities around New
Zealand because of the calf and rural scheme.
It's it's amazing that's createdthat.
(14:03):
We have a number of other camps.We have family liaisons that
support families in rural communities as well.
It has a huge impact and its increasing and ICC, our new CEO
is really looking at how do we make sure this money reaches
(14:24):
those people that need it the most.
We also have residential care inalmost every rural community
around New Zealand where older, you know older like adults with
intellectual disabilities that have much higher needs, they
can't live independently. That requires sometimes 24 hour
(14:46):
care. IHC is there doing that for from
the beginning, last 75 years, weare still there, we are still
doing it. But this money is helping us a
lot more with the younger families and making sure we can
get to them and help them live alife that is I guess just a
(15:10):
little bit, give them a little bit of support, a little what
I'd like to say or what we say. And I see it's building
strengths and resilience and to those families, both for today
and into the future. And you know, we, we can't hold
their hand through the whole time as ICC, but just to build
(15:33):
strength and resilience so that they can be better prepared for
crises that will come up in their life and just be there
when they need a helping hand, Make sure there's people there
who can give them good advice, that kind of thing.
So that's what this is helping make happen.
(15:53):
Look, and that is an admirable effort.
And that's it sounds like every,every dollar that's donated is
going to an extremely worthwhilecause.
Hey, look, Greg, thank you very much for your your time.
And to our listeners, we've got a Vince right up and down the
country. Morning teas inside stores to,
to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities.
(16:15):
And if you do find yourself nearthe Invercargill store, you can
checkout my pink boots Friday, the 17th of April and very keen
to get as many people as we can.And so Alison, thanks, Greg.
And yeah, keep up the great work.
That's great built. I hope you post a photo of those
pink boots at some stage. I'll be looking out for that.
(16:39):
Well, I've the the challenge hasbeen laid down now, so Yep.
And I'm sure marketing will be listening.
There will be someone around with a peer of with some camera
anyway to grab a shot of the boats.
Thanks very much, Greg much. Appreciated.
Cheers, Melton. Thank you for listening to
Bluesheet Diary. To find out more about Pink Week
(16:59):
and the incredible work iexec does for our communities, visit
iehc.org dot NZ. We have a link in the show
notes. Be sure to hit the subscribe
button to get new content each week and tell a friend or two
about us. Until next time, piano.
You're listening to blue shift diary, a podcast about and four
our farmers and growers brought to you by PSG rights and my name
is Milton Monroe. I'm your host and technical team
manager. And this week I am tickled pink
about our next guest. For over 40 years, IFC has
raised money to support people with intellectual disabilities
(00:31):
and they're far now and rural areas to the Cafe and rural
scheme. Farmers can donate their
livestock or people can pledge your virtual careful lamb to
help raise vital funds for I. This cause is near and dear to
everyone inside PG Wrightson's hearts, and as the principal
sponsor, we want to make sure everyone is taking part in
Penguin. Joining the conversation is
(00:52):
national fundraising manager forICC New Zealand, Greg Miller.
Welcome to the show, Greg. Hi Milton and thanks for having
me looking. Forward to it and pleasure to
have you on board. So let's start really broad and
tell us about the ICC. What?
What is it you do? I'd say it's been around for
seven, ohh, well almost 80 years.
(01:15):
It helps supports people with intellectual disabilities and
their families in every community around New Zealand and
does a lot of work in rural communities around New Zealand.
Do you find there's a differencein what you do with the rural
communities than what you do with maybe with our city folk?
Where does it, you know, 80 years is a long time and in our
(01:38):
logo is something in your community.
People who live in rural communities really understood
the importance of in your community more than other any
other community around New Zealand.
And they've had a close connection with IHC Bright from
the beginning, you know, people like Succulent Meats who had no
(02:01):
connection, you know, no family connection to HCC just got
involved right after he retired and not as a celebrity
involvement. He was on, he was on one of our
local associations, Antiquity. He, he went down to get a young
guy out of one of the institutions, which was what UHC
(02:24):
was all about, that young peopleor anyone should not be locked
away in an institution. They needed to be in their own
community with their family, friends and neighbors around
them. Now imagine this young guy, I
think his name was Dino, actually suddenly going to rugby
(02:47):
games with Sir Colin Meads, you know, And while Colin had a big
year at the end, on the end of the table, he'd be sitting there
having a Coca-Cola listening to conversations about cola means
escapades to everyone in the back as people would come
around. And but that's in your community
(03:09):
and I think country, you know, rural people got it so much more
clearly than anyone else. And also they got in behind it
through the CCAF. It was just the calf scheme 44
years ago now. It wasn't calf and rural, but
(03:31):
dairy farmers really thought this is something I want to
support. I want to make sure that Dino
who, whoever it is, can live with their family in their
community, get the support they need to.
And then I see really built up to make sure that each of those
(03:54):
people got the support they needed and the families too,
because, you know, the families are the ones that have to
shoulder a lot of the, um, obviously the support for a
young person with an intellectual disability, but it,
it's transformed the lives of a lot of people with intellectual
(04:16):
disabilities over those 80 years.
And I just wanted to say that that rural community had a lot
to do with that and really got in behind and made sure that
this could happen. It has always been a strength of
the rural community that they isthat real sense of, of
(04:39):
togetherness of, of community. It's a great way to sum it up
and best word to probably use there.
And it's been fantastic they've been able to to bring XC into
that community. Let's talk a little bit around
Pink Week. What is Pink weekend?
How can people take part in this?
Well, the interest, you know, PGG writes and you've had a few
(05:00):
names over the years, but right at the very beginning, this was
your thing. The livestock agents and people
got in behind it with the farmers, made things happen,
built up our list of farming. Yeah, I mean, we're sorry I'm a
(05:22):
city folks, but most of the people ohh, see we're Wellington
based and things like that. But we have, you know,
volunteers in every community around the country.
We have mostly parents. They make sure we stay in line.
And PGG writes and got them behind that, created something
(05:48):
that they cared about as staff and as some of your customers,
you know, got in behind it, particularly the dairy
customers, really, you know, dairy farmers just got in behind
and said we want to do this, we care about it.
And Pink Week has come in more recent years.
(06:11):
But it was such a brilliant idea, guess to say, hey, what
can we do to really show that we're in behind this as well and
give people an opportunity to join in as well.
Not just the dairy farmers that are already connected to the
scheme, but everyone and our staff and teams, you know,
(06:33):
around other customers. Is there a way we can join?
And, and I mean, I, I have to say I thought, ohh, yeah, okay,
that's a good idea. Yeah, well, it was, it was a
brilliant idea because it came from the chief executive and.
The best? Ones exactly, and then it just
(06:56):
you guys really got in behind it.
You even there was some the weekI saw the logo change to pink
for a bit and you know, I'm surethe blue shade could even become
the pink shade for a week. Could probably make that happen
actually. There you go.
I mean, there's something about it that just shows, hey, we
(07:18):
care. We won't, you know, we, we want
to help support this. It's a really vulnerable group
of people. This is a good cause.
And going pink is kind of a nicelittle way just to show that and
give people a chance to join. No, it is a fantastic week.
(07:39):
I certainly know it in my Homebase at the Invercargill
store. Everyone gets into the swing of
it. We have a fantastic morning tea
and raise a bit of money for forI HC along the way.
I've seen some pictures, Melton.There's people come out and
pink, pink wigs and. Hey, look, I cannot possibly
comment, but I plan on taking It's taking the world by storm
(08:02):
this year. I have a now I have a bright
pair of pink boots. They will be donned possibly,
well I can't spoil the rest of my outfit year, but it will be
something to talk about. Let's talk about the IACC calf
and rural scheme. So.
And how many calves and lambs doyou get donated every year?
(08:27):
Well, I mean like the calves andlambs, it's, it's around two
2302 thousand 400 live ones. And um, you know, and then we
have increasingly a number of virtual calves or virtual, you
know, things that come in as well.
(08:47):
Let's dive into that virtual carfor a little bit as well.
So what, what really caused the virtual calf system to, to, to,
to come to life And, and could you explain a little bit around
what a virtual calf is? Because my mind is boggling
here. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was, it
was interesting because some, itstarted even before Mycoplasma
(09:10):
Bovis, but that really was the impetus to say, hey, how can we
get more people to join who havedifficulty at this stage
donating a live calf? Um, but it started before that
with some farmers. I know the story of the first
farmers, it said, um, I think the, the, the wife of the couple
(09:36):
said, actually I don't like raising these calves.
Lot of work. They, they can be a bit of a
hassle and, and, and you know, we do appreciate that there is a
hassle. It is a lot of work and people
take a lot of care and we love it.
But what they have done is, and then they've just kept on
(09:58):
donating to two calves virtually.
And we said, ohh, yeah, okay. Back then it was about $300 a
calf. And so that became, rather than
physically getting a calf to us,farmers could also just choose
to donate a virtual CAF. Interestingly, in COVID, there
(10:20):
were people, city people and others.
And you know, the, the wonderfulJamie McKay got in behind it and
got quite a few city people to say, ohh, I'll donate a virtual
cap. And the good thing is also I
think is there is opportunity todonate virtual from other parts
(10:42):
of the sector. So lambs, for example, um, and
um, I think, you know, is there any reason why people who
farmers, who, or people in ruralcommunities with deer or, um,
raising crops or, or all sorts of things virtual?
(11:03):
Darling. Yeah.
And I mean, we just picked that $300 amount because it related
to a calf. But in some ways it's quite a
good amount for people to make ameaningful, important gift to HC
that hopefully, you know, it's tough times, but you know,
(11:29):
hopefully it's affordable. And one thing we do say at
moments like this, people do go through tough times.
But when times are tough, the actual thing, it's the toughest
on the most vulnerable in some of these people with families
with a child with an intellectual disability can
(11:49):
really struggle most more than most of us at times like this.
So I think if we can do anythingto get people outside of the
dairy sector, because the dairy sector have really done their
part for 44 years, it would be wonderful if Pink Week could
(12:10):
start getting people to think, yeah, I could do something.
Tell me a little bit around someof the programmes that this
money goes to support. Just give an idea for a
listeners thinking about where their donation goes and what
their donation can help actuallywhat it means to to some of
these families. Well, I actually it's been in
(12:32):
every community around New Zealand and particularly in
rural communities and we have touched over 3435 local
associations with that. Some of the donated money goes
through to them each year. They're people who know local
(12:54):
needs. You know it's not about and it
will be different for each community.
If you're in Ashburton, if you're in the Waikato, where we
have really strong local communities, they reach out and
help families they know in thosecommunities.
The other part of it is we're doing some amazing work with
(13:21):
families through sibling camps, which is for brothers and
sisters of children with intellectual disability that
they go away, they have a camp, they have great fun because
often they miss out on the attention because the attention
has to go on their sibling and there's a lot of things they
(13:42):
have to go through and often they don't.
They're not the centre of attention and the family going
away together, having a great time.
So that's making it happen. And what's happening is we're
able to do this in a lot of rural communities around New
Zealand because of the calf and rural scheme.
It's it's amazing that's createdthat.
(14:03):
We have a number of other camps.We have family liaisons that
support families in rural communities as well.
It has a huge impact and its increasing and ICC, our new CEO
is really looking at how do we make sure this money reaches
(14:24):
those people that need it the most.
We also have residential care inalmost every rural community
around New Zealand where older, you know older like adults with
intellectual disabilities that have much higher needs, they
can't live independently. That requires sometimes 24 hour
(14:46):
care. IHC is there doing that for from
the beginning, last 75 years, weare still there, we are still
doing it. But this money is helping us a
lot more with the younger families and making sure we can
get to them and help them live alife that is I guess just a
(15:10):
little bit, give them a little bit of support, a little what
I'd like to say or what we say. And I see it's building
strengths and resilience and to those families, both for today
and into the future. And you know, we, we can't hold
their hand through the whole time as ICC, but just to build
(15:33):
strength and resilience so that they can be better prepared for
crises that will come up in their life and just be there
when they need a helping hand, Make sure there's people there
who can give them good advice, that kind of thing.
So that's what this is helping make happen.
(15:53):
Look, and that is an admirable effort.
And that's it sounds like every,every dollar that's donated is
going to an extremely worthwhilecause.
Hey, look, Greg, thank you very much for your your time.
And to our listeners, we've got a Vince right up and down the
country. Morning teas inside stores to,
to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities.
(16:15):
And if you do find yourself nearthe Invercargill store, you can
checkout my pink boots Friday, the 17th of April and very keen
to get as many people as we can.And so Alison, thanks, Greg.
And yeah, keep up the great work.
That's great built. I hope you post a photo of those
pink boots at some stage. I'll be looking out for that.
(16:39):
Well, I've the the challenge hasbeen laid down now, so Yep.
And I'm sure marketing will be listening.
There will be someone around with a peer of with some camera
anyway to grab a shot of the boats.
Thanks very much, Greg much. Appreciated.
Cheers, Melton. Thank you for listening to
Bluesheet Diary. To find out more about Pink Week
(16:59):
and the incredible work iexec does for our communities, visit
iehc.org dot NZ. We have a link in the show
notes. Be sure to hit the subscribe
button to get new content each week and tell a friend or two
about us. Until next time, piano.
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Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.