Editorial: Calendar has heroes and more

There's a new dimension to the Flaxmere Heroes calendar for 2012.

Next year's calendar, the third of its kind, not only celebrates the suburb's local heroes but also includes a directory of agencies, services and businesses accessible to residents of Flaxmere.

The calendar, supported by Hastings District Council, Hawke's Bay District Health Board, Te Puni Kokiri, Totara Health, the U-Turn Trust, and some local businesses, will be distributed to more than 3000 homes and businesses in the suburb with the Hastings Leader in coming weeks.

Inclusion of a community directory was an inspired thought by the district council and agencies that support Flaxmere, essentially bolting on useful names and numbers to a project that's all about community pride.

Hawke's Bay Today is a proud supporter of the calendar, this year providing the photography and words about the selected heroes.

The official launch at Te Aranga Marae on Monday was attended by more than 100 guests along with the heroes, an individual or group for each month of 2012. On page four today you can see the range of inspiring people from Flaxmere who were selected as heroes for the calendar.

Chairman of the U-Turn Trust, Rex Graham, said the difficult task was picking just 12 from the potential heroes. "We were just overwhelmed by people that could have gone into the calendar," he said.

District councillor Henare O'Keefe always has a nice turn of phrase when it comes to describing how much people such as these mean to the community.

"They are the glue that holds this community together, they are simply outstanding," he said. "Sure we have some issues, but guess what? We have the solutions as well."