Bay Harbour: October 17, 2018

PAGE 6 Wednesday October 17 2018
BAY HARBOUR
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
News
Award for cottage trust
• By Matt Salmons
DIAMOND Harbour’s Stoddart
Cottage Trust was recognised
last week for its contribution to
raising awareness of heritage
assets.
The trust was given the
Christchurch Civic Trust’s Category
D Award in a ceremony
at Beckenham
Library on
Tuesday.
The award is
given for special
events or
programmes
Paula Smith
that serve
to raise the
community’s awareness and appreciation
of heritage assets.
Trustee Paula Smith said the
award came as a surprise to the
trust.
“We didn’t know who nominated
us or anything.”
She said she later found out it
had been a visitor to the cottage
who had nominated them.
“Keeping a place like this ticking
over requires a lot of work
and it’s all done for nothing.
“It’s nice to be recognised for
that. It helps keep the motivation
up.”
The oldest dwelling in Diamond
Harbour, the cottage was
the birthplace of well-known
HERITAGE: Stoddart Cottage is the oldest dwelling in
Diamond Harbour.
Canterbury artist Margaret
Stoddart.
Awards convenor Neil Roberts
said it was given in recognition
of the stewardship of the trust
over more than two decades and
the “contribution to the social
life of Diamond Harbour.”
Mr Roberts said the building
was also important to communities
outside of Diamond
Harbour due to its heritage.
“Stoddart cottage is one of
the oldest domestic buildings in
the Christchurch area in public
ownership. It is also perhaps
importantly the birthplace of
one of New Zealand’s most celebrated
women watercolourists.”
Since earthquake repairs were
completed last year, the cottage
had been open every Friday,
Saturday and Sunday and on
public holidays.
Visitors could explore the
house and museum, see local
artworks and buy crafts at
an on-site shop run by a cooperative.
Mrs Smith said the trust
wanted to eventually buy some
original Margaret Stoddart
paintings to display at the cottage.
“So we’d have our own little
collection,” she said.
Anniversary celebrations
• By Matt Salmons
FROM BRASS bands to coffee
meet-ups, music sessions to
disaster preparation, the last
decade has been varied for the
Sumner Bays Union Trust.
The charity celebrated its
10-year anniversary working
in the Sumner and Redcliffs
communities on Sunday.
When it was formed in 2008
it had three ongoing projects – a
coffee group, an arts and crafts
market and a lunch group.
As it celebrates a decade, the
trust now oversees 10 projects
including the Bridge2Rocks
Timebank, the Sumner
Community Garden, Loopy
Tunes children’s’ music group
and the Sumner Silver Band.
Community development
team leader Eddie Hayes has
been with the trust since it
started in 2008 and said “seeing
the community grow and pull
together” had been rewarding.
“Community development
is the philosophy on which the
trust was founded. It’s about
empowering the community,
not merely doing it for the
community. It underpins
everything we do.”
The then Union Parish formed
the trust with a view to grow
and develop the community, Mr
Hayes said.
“Right from the beginning,
we’ve tried to have a wide
representation of the
community on the trust board
as possible.”
Now the Port Hills Uniting
Parish, it is represented on the
six-member board by Lydia
MacKinnon. Deirdre Johns is the
board’s chairwoman.
Although the February 22,
2011, took a toll on the trust’s
projects, Mr Hayes said it had
grown significantly since then.
“Certainly, some projects
have come and gone, but we’ve
been able to maintain a range of
projects for substantial periods
of time.”
One the trust’s latest projects
centred around combating social
isolation in elderly residents of
Sumner, Redcliffs and further
afield to Mt Pleasant and
Ferrymead.
“We knew social isolation was
a big issue out here . . . but we
didn’t know the depths of it.”
The trust employed Maree
McGovern to provide social
work support and organise
regular outings.
This year, the trust had
started focusing on promoting
sustainability initiatives, such
as the Sumner Food Forest and
Predator Free groups.
Mr Hayes said he believed the
trust would continue “doing cool
stuff” long into the future.
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