Tremendous interest in new hockey clubrooms

Donations already totalling close to $10,000 have been received from all quarters of the Wairarapa hockey community to help with the construction of the new clubrooms and pavilion which will complement the installation of a new water turf at Clareville.
The Wairarapa Hockey Association have undertaken to raise the capital required to build the planned facilities which will house changing rooms and storage rooms on the ground floor and a spectator lounge with kitchen and bar amenities upstairs.
To supplement their current cash reserves the association have formed a supporter's club through which past and present players and their families can show their support by making donations which will be acknowledged permanently on a set of boards to be affixed to an interior wall of the new complex.
Supporter's club treasurer Mike van Woerkom said there had been "tremendous interest" in the project with donations coming from all age groups.
Contributions were divided into three categories individual, family and business with individual donations, for instance, starting from $50. Some families have already donated over $1000.
Even local schools and colleges have joined the list of donators with Wairarapa College and Kahutara School having lent their financial support.
As van Woerkom points out if each of the 1500 registered players in Wairarapa were able to donate $50 that's less than $1 a week for just one year there would be an instant kitty of $75,000.
"This is the easy way for each and every hockey loyalist to get in behind this project," he said, adding that with the construction of the new facility due to start in February 2009 it was important pledges were received sooner than later so as to assist the association with their budgets.
It is anticipated the new pavilion will be constructed over a series of weeks using the "community build" theme whereby donated labour from local tradesmen together with materials supplied at near cost price by local business people would help reduce the overall cost of the facility.
The flow-on benefits to the Wairarapa community from the pavilion and the new water turf once they are completed will be considerable, according to van Woerkom, with national tournaments able to be held at Clareville on a regular basis. "These sort of tourneys can bring as many as 15 teams from outside the area to the Wairarapa and that's a lot of money coming into the region," he said.
n For further information on the supporter's club Mike van Woerkom can be contacted on (06) 308-9808 or by emailing carol.mike@xtra.co.nz