Dye Hard: Colourful volunteer helps those doing it tough

Friday, 19 June 2026

With a bright beard that's hard to miss, streeties seeking a free freshen-up know they’re in the right place when they spot Greg Lammas.

The Orange Sky volunteer dyed his beard orange to help promote National Volunteer Week, but has also rocked a rainbow of colours, from pink to — at Christmastime — Grinch green.

His partner had fun switching up the colours, and wanted to highlight the charity that has provided more than 1150 clean loads of laundry and 450 showers to people in Hamilton in the past year.

Lammas knows first-hand how valuable it can be to have a place to wash clothes or have a hot shower when you don’t have such facilities at hand.

The 47-year-old had struggled with his mental health, and had been in “a bad place” when he first came to Orange Sky wanting to do some washing.

“I used to live in a house bus and I was in the same predicament as everybody else. So, I thought, what a better way to do it than to go back to those people?”

He no longer lived in the house bus, but was passionate about helping those who were “down and out”, including many living out of their cars.

Orange Sky’s Hamilton van had a hot shower, two washing machines and two dryers, and parked at a range of locations depending on the day of the week.

The van was stationed on Oxford St on Wednesdays, Hamilton Lake on Fridays, King St on Sundays, and London St on Mondays.

Lammas ran the Tuesday shift, parking on Grey St by the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He had been helping with the organisation for three years and said they were always looking for more volunteers to lend a hand. Making people smile was the best part.

“They come up to us and they're all down and out because life's happening for them, and once they leave our shift, they're actually smiling, laughing, and joking, and they feel better about themselves, so that's the best part of it. Plus, they get to have clean clothes as well.”

The conversation was where the magic happened — Orange Sky had a no-judging policy and had provided 1830 hours of kōrero in Hamilton over the past year.

Looking back on memorable moments, Lammas recalled one mother who arrived needing help to wash her children’s school uniforms and had no way to dry them.

“She was just so grateful that she could send her kids to school with dry clothes just because we were there.”

Another case also struck a chord with him.

“What broke my heart was this old guy said he could do it, he thought he could live in his car and stuff like that. Well, when he caught up with us, it was his first hot shower in two months.'

The Hamilton City Council was making life increasingly hard for people living out of cars, he said.

They were often notified by City Safe that they had to move on, and did not feel safe.

City Safe operations manager Philippa Clear said they responded to community concerns and did not proactively go out looking for people sleeping in cars.

“We also explain where overnight parking isn’t allowed. Our approach is to work alongside people wherever we can.”