Looking into mysterious community history

HISTORY AND MYSTERY: Wairarapa Community Centre manager Bev Jack, with some of the information she has unearthed about the centre's history.

One of Wairarapa's enduring community organisations is appealing to the public to help fill in some of the blanks of its mysterious 30-year history.

Wairarapa Community Centre manager Bev Jack is writing a history of the centre, officially opened on Masterton's Dixon St in 2002, and now housing close to 20 community support entities from its current location on Perry St.

Ms Jack said she and helpers from the Wairarapa Volunteer Centre have spent a year working on the project, sifting through paperwork, digging into the archives for newspaper articles and conducting interviews.

However, there is one period in time which remains a puzzle. There is no information available from between 1988, when a constitution was originally formed, to the centre's registration in the late 90s.

"For the first nine years, there's silence. It's a total mystery," Ms Jack said.

"It's important to have that history preserved in the community, otherwise trustees and managers come and go, people age and memories deteriorate, and all that information is lost.

"We wanted to celebrate the centre and have a record for future generations.

"If there are people out there who can fill in the gaps, we'd love to hear from you."

Ms Jack said she began researching the centre's history while coming up with a strategic plan for the organisation last year.

"I wanted to include a brief history of the centre, but I realised I knew nothing about its background," she said.

Finding little information to work with in the centre's archives, she gathered together a team of volunteers, lead by Masterton newcomer Seini Vunivutu, who began sourcing documents from the Wairarapa Archive and articles from the Wairarapa Times-Age, and approached businesses and past tenants for information.

The volunteers were able to source documents from 1988, detailing a draft constitution and plans for an incorporated society, signed by 15 people.

While she was able to track down some of the signatories, information on the early years still proved elusive, Ms Jack said.

"Some people just don't remember - and others have passed on.

"We're not sure if the Community Centre started in 1989 with those signatories, or on Dixon St in the early 2000s.

"But it's clear there was work happening early on."

The volunteers were more History of centre

a bit of a mystery

successful in finding information from the early 21st century. This includes discovering the centre was registered with the Companies Office in 1999, with "more concrete plans" emerging in 2011.

In 2002, the newly-formed centre signed a contract of lease at the old button factory building at 170 Dixon Street, with Y Team Wairarapa as its first tenant.

It was later joined by Wairarapa Green Dollars, the Heart Foundation, SPELD, Wairarapa Happy Circle, an adult learning organisation and a counselling service.

Concerns were raised about the safety of the Dixon St premise in 2009 and people flocked to a public meeting at Frank Cody Lounge to discuss a potential new building.

In 2012, the centre's Perry St building, a space vacated by Moore Stephens Markhams accounting firm, was officially opened.

Ms Jack said she has enjoyed hearing some of the centre's stories -- such as the Y Team's move to the centre from the old milk plant in Worksop Rd, and accounts of a burglary at the Dixon St premise.

"But it would be great to hear more -- and it's been challenging because the information is so minimal.

"We want to hear from the people who were there, and who were pivotal in setting the centre up."

"A lot of work has been achieved over the years to get this community-owned resource going, and we want to get more of those stories written down."

If you have information which will assist Ms Jack, please contact the Wairarapa Community Centre on 06 377 1022, or email info@wcct.co.nz.