OFFICIAL OPENING- HAVELOCK COMMUNITY GARDEN
Over 100 people of all ages gathered at Havelock’s Community Garden on 3rd December 2011 to watch Mayor Alistair Sowman declare the Garden open and to listen to local Anglican Minister Dale Pomeroy bless the enterprise. The Mayor congratulated the initiative of the local Anglican Parish and the Pelorus Area Health Trust in developing the amenity in Havelock and for the number of people and organisations who contributed expertise and energy in making the Garden happen.
Mayor Sowman noted that Community gardens are a practical response to need on several levels. They supply a fine supply of vegetables for the community and offer practical support to those who find themselves a bit stretched financially. They also have another, very important value in that they give older people or people with time on their hands or who could do with the company a very practical and useful way of staying part of the community.
Dale Pomeroy briefly sketched the history of the garden and how it had developed from an idea his wife, Jenny, and Sharyn Smith had when the local St John’s cadets had a garden in the vicarage grounds three years ago. The idea developed when the Pelorus Christian Men’s Group built the first two raised beds in July 2010, with soils from the Okaramio road works being delivered in September 2010 and the appointment of Ian Cameron as the garden manager.
He thanked Sharyn Smith and her son, Vinnie for making the land available for the purpose of a Community Garden, free of charge.
Sharyn Smith, now Chairperson of the Pelorus Area Health Trust, gave a brief history of the land and developed the concept of how the land where the Garden is now situated has previously been important for health and wellbeing. She related the story of Emma Wells a widow with eight children lived in the section next door in the early 1900s. Allocation of one sack of seed potatoes ensured the family’s sheer survival. The land where the Community Garden is situated was owned by Granny Well’s grandson, Alfie Stafford, who had a large garden with fruit trees, providing food for his extended whanau of 3 generations who lived with him.
Sharyn also pointed out the importance of networking for the success of the Garden and instanced this with the example of Cathy Ruffell,the Anglican Church’s elder care worker who collects the vegetables from the Garden and delivers them to those in need. She also thanked all the sponsors and Friends of the Garden (46 in all) who have made the project a success and a reality.
Ian Cameron