Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Seventh-day Adventist School gets new playground thanks to donor who heard of emergency housing impacts

Kelly Makiha
By Kelly Makiha
Multimedia Journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·
3 May, 2023 06:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

New playground for 7th Day Adventist School Fenton St

Children at a Rotorua school surrounded by emergency housing motels were looking forward to a new playground - instead, the money for it had to be spent on security fencing and cameras to keep them safe.

Now, their prayers for a new playground have been answered thanks to the generosity of a local businessman.

The Seventh-day Adventist School children held a special ceremony at the school this week to thank the businessman, who wanted to remain anonymous to the wider public, for his donation. They presented him with handwritten thank you cards and letters.

Principal Lanea Strickland said the businessman was at a resource consent hearing last year - which was deciding the future of 14 contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua - when leaders from the Fenton St school spoke to its submission.

They begged for an end to emergency housing in the Fenton St area because of the devastating impacts it was having on their school.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

These included items being left on the school’s grounds such as a used tampon, knives, booze bottles, condoms and human faeces. The school management revealed students and staff had been threatened and had abuse hurled at them, and children had been called racial slurs.

The grounds had also been broken into several times and vandalised. Fences, sheds, and roofs had been damaged or broken into, and thousands of dollars worth of security cameras smashed.

The rotting and sulphur-damaged playground that was condemned.
The rotting and sulphur-damaged playground that was condemned.

The children’s playground had, in the meantime, been condemned due to old age and they could no longer play on it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The school proprietors had $70,000 for a new playground, but had to put it towards erecting electronic security fencing around the school and installing security cameras to keep the children safe.

Strickland said the businessman approached those speaking at the hearing afterwards and offered to pay for a new playground.

As the plans were being sorted, South Auckland’s Seventh-day Adventist School learned it had to remove its playground to make way for new buildings, and offered Rotorua’s school its playground.

The businessman instead paid for two weeks’ worth of labour and materials for a team to install the relocated playground.

He told the children at the ceremony they should not thank him but instead thank their school principal and Board of Trustees for having the “courage” to speak publicly about the impacts emergency housing was having on the school.

In his view, the authorities listened and today Rotorua was a “much better place than it was a year ago”.

The man also gave the children some advice about their futures.

“When you’re sitting in your classroom and you’re wondering what you’re doing there, just look over the fence (to the emergency housing motels) because if you don’t listen to your teachers and take notice of what they say and what your parents tell you, you’ll end up over there more likely than not. You’ve got an opportunity in your life to do something with your life.”

The man also told the children: “Enjoy your playground, be good people and make the most of what you’ve got in front of you.”

Principal Lanea Strickland said the children had prayed every week for a playground.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“This is an absolute answer to our prayers for our children ... To be able to do something like this for our school, I don’t think we will ever be able to repay you. Thank you very much for coming forward in our time of need.”

Proprietor of the New Zealand Seventh-day Adventist Schools Association Ltd property manager Roger Marshall said at the ceremony it was amazing timing with the South Auckland school having to remove its playground and kindly donating it to Rotorua free of charge, and they would be forever grateful.

He said the children had raised $6000 themselves from a fun run and that money went towards bark and protective platforms for the playground, so the children could walk on the bark and know they helped pay for it.

The Rotorua Seventh-day Adventist School was opened 70 years ago in February 1953 and is one of 16 Seventh-day Adventist state-integrated schools in New Zealand. It is Rotorua’s smallest school with just 31 pupils.

Rotorua Seventh-day Adventist School children now have a new playground.
Rotorua Seventh-day Adventist School children now have a new playground.

Two-year resource consents with tougher conditions were granted for 13 contracted emergency housing motels after the hearings.

It meant as of February 1, 2023, the 13 motels were legally bound to operate under the much stricter conditions. Among those were a heavy focus on better interaction with the community, a ban on dogs and the removal of motel signage.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Residents said last month the tougher rules were having a positive impact on the city, including on Fenton St.

The use of Rotorua motels for emergency housing has also reduced.

In February this year, there were 375 households in contracted and non-contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. In March last year, there were 708 households in motels.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that $6000 raised by the children for the new playground was put towards security fencing and cameras to keep them safe. In fact, school proprietors used $70,000 set aside for a new playground on security measures and the $6000 raised by the children was spent on the playground’s bark and protective platforms.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

First stage of Tarawera sewerage scheme complete

09 May 05:17 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua man named as victim of Waikato crash

09 May 12:49 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

BoP under heavy rain warning, possible thunderstorms

09 May 12:40 AM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

First stage of Tarawera sewerage scheme complete

First stage of Tarawera sewerage scheme complete

09 May 05:17 AM

The first homes are expected to be connected by the end of June.

Rotorua man named as victim of Waikato crash

Rotorua man named as victim of Waikato crash

09 May 12:49 AM
BoP under heavy rain warning, possible thunderstorms

BoP under heavy rain warning, possible thunderstorms

09 May 12:40 AM
'We are not an airline': Council waives airport fees, denies loan request

'We are not an airline': Council waives airport fees, denies loan request

09 May 12:33 AM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP