Heathcote Valley Online

[We announced the start of the redevelopment of St Mary’s Village Hall last August, and Heathcote people will have noticed an all too obvious delay that has taken us through to November. With this wonderful update from Judy Stack, it looks like our wait will soon be over.]

The Project Team for the redevelopment of St Mary’s Village Hall is delighted to announce that work on Stage 1 of the project will finally begin mid January 2009. The much anticipated building consent was received last Monday after five months languishing on council desks!

The only good part about this delay was that the team was able to do more fundraising and the investments earned more interest. Due to this, we have a small surplus on income over anticipated expenditure for Stage 1. If there are no unanticipated problems during the construction process and if prices have not risen too significantly, we may be in the enviable position of starting fundraising for Stage 2 with some money in the bank!

We are very grateful to the community groups who have donated generously to this project, they are: Canterbury Community Trust, Pub Charities, Mainland Trust and the Eureka Trust. We have also received funding from Christchurch City Council and Church Property Trustees and we sincerely appreciate their support.

It has also been very encouraging to the Team that a number of donations have been received from the Heathcote and greater Christchurch community, including individual donors and community groups, thank you to all these folk, we could not have proceeded with Stage 1 without your support.

It is expected that Stage 1 construction will take approximately three months, so we are hoping to have the facility renovated in time for Easter. Once the building starts we will have a better idea of when we can anticipate completion. Fundraising for Stage 2 is about to begin and we will be holding a Christmas fundraising event on Sunday, 7 December.

This event will be a Carols, Champagne and Canapes evening at 7 pm in the Church of St Mary, 2 Truscotts Road, Heathcote Valley. This is an event similar to Carols in the Park, but with the added bonus of good food and wine! It involves coming along to sing all your favourite Christmas carols in the beautiful and historic church and, after the carol singing, enjoy a lovely supper which will be washed down with a glass of champagne!

The cost of this event is $20 per head, children can attend for free. There are 80 tickets for sale and the Project Team would love your support. Please contact Judy (384 2050) or Janet (384 6064) if you would like tickets to this fun evening. Thank you to all who have supported us over the past year we sincerely appreciate your generosity.