New Parksyde House receives warm welcome from community at opening

The opening of Parksyde House at 5 Tarewa Place. Photo / Supplied

Tarewa Place was full of excitement recently as the long-awaited opening of a building that will become a service hub for older people was held.

The official opening of Parksyde House and the welcoming of Age Concern Rotorua to its new premises was held last Thursday.

The Parksyde House was a former custodian house, which will now have Age Concern Rotorua onsite, and is next to the Parksyde Centre.

The Older Persons Community Centre Trust (Parksyde) had repurposed and renovated 5 Tarewa Place, thanks to funding from the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust.

Age Concern has shifted into the house and a pathway link will be in place between Parksyde Community Centre and Parksyde House.

Those who attended the official opening included Older Persons Community Centre trustees (Parksyde), Age Concern staff and council, Grey Power, Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust, Te Tatou o Te Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council staff, Oranga Tinana o Ue, district health board manager, MSD managers and more.

Reverend Tom Poata blessed the house in the morning, and Monty Morrison opened the ceremony.

Robyn Skelton, Parksyde (The Older Persons Community Centre Trust) manager, says it has been a long time coming for the trust to see the house be used for more community services for older people.

"It's part of a bigger vision the trust has had since 2005 and it's stage one of that bigger vision."

She says in addition to the funding for the Parksyde House renovation, the trust recently received funding to start the development of a community services hub for older people on the large grassed area next to Parksyde Community Centre.

"We've been successful with two different funds to start the process. Firstly, the trust needs to find out from the various Rotorua community services who work in the older people space, as well as from the Parksyders themselves, exactly what they would like in a separate service hub."

This month, Rotorua Lakes Council granted $60,000 to the Parksyde Community Centre to establish a new hub on Tarewa Pl, alongside the current facilities serving the elderly.

In addition, a further $24,000 was received from the Lottery COVID-19 Community Wellbeing Fund.

Robyn says she was thrilled with the support for the plans and also the number of people who attended the initial event.

Age Concern Rotorua manager Rory O 'Rourke says it was great to have so many people there to celebrate the opening of Parksyde House.

He says despite some worries at first about moving the Age Concern location, the new building and space was nice and bright, having been recently renovated.

The Parksyde Community Centre, run by Rotorua's Older Persons Community Centre Trust, gives clubs, groups and organisations a place for older people to be social and active.

It supports more than 800 elderly people per week in activities and social opportunities.