Hauraki Terrace Playground officially opened

A ribbon-cutting ceremony, a sausage sizzle and an impromptu haka were all part of the grand official opening of the new Hauraki Terrace Playground in Thames a few days ago.

The new playground is a replacement for one that was starting to fall apart, with rotten wooden posts, nails sticking out, graffiti and litter strewn about.

The project to replace the playground provided a great example of our Council's community empowerment model in action.

When our Parks and Reserves Manager Derek Thompson saw the run-down playground, he got in touch with Thames South School, which most of the neighbourhood's children attend, with the idea that students get involved in designing a replacement.

Teacher Greg Pilcher's Room 2 class got started on a playground design and a submission to Council for funding.

Working closely with Mr Thompson, the pupils canvassed other children on what was needed. They identified what equipment would be best, where to put it and they came up with a budget.

They went to the Thames Community Board, presenting their report as a solution to the problem of the decaying playground and asking for funding for it to be built.

The funding was granted and last year the playground was put in place.

Mr Pilcher's class was at the grand opening last week and cut the ribbon around the playground, with each student getting to keep a piece.

Afterwards, a group of the students performed a spontaneous haka.

"This shows the pride that is unlocked when young people are involved in such a project," says our Council's Chief Executive, David Hammond.

Ana Johnston, 10, was the student whose design for the playground was voted by her classmates to be made into reality.
She says watching the playground finally being built last year was the best part of the project.

"It had gone from a picture on a piece of paper to a real thing on the ground."

Her classmate Kain Kim was one of the students who helped deliver the playground presentation to the Thames Community Board.

"I really liked us being able to say our own speech to Council. We got to write down what to say."

Classmate Paige Madden-Morehu agrees: "We asked whether we could put in the playground so the community would have somewhere safe to play. We watched the transformation from a humble little playground to something we'll have for a long, long time."

Their teacher, Mr Pilcher, summed up what the project had meant for his class.

"The kids have seen they can make a difference and do make a difference in the community. They respect their playground because they created it. It's clean and tidy because it's theirs.

"And I hope we're raising active community members rather than people who do nothing and complain."

Community spin-offs

The playground replacement project has inspired others to get involved.

Another class at Thames South School saw the success of the project and wanted to do something. They came up with the idea to give the stairway up Grey Street, Jacob's Ladder, a makeover.

The steps were painted bright colours borrowed from a public sculpture on the Thames Coastal Walkway. Those same rainbow colours are also used on bollards around Victoria Park.

These colours were then incorporated into the playground's border, where the pupils have painted their handprints on a white background.

The children of a local pre-school have made tile mosaic benches which were installed at the playground on 2 March.

Thames South School partnered with nearby St Francis School last year to plant native trees near the playground - at the kids' suggestion - to bring native birds back to the reserve. This was done under the Trees For Survival programme in conjunction with Council.

The community group behind Bright Smile Community Garden wants to plant a community garden in the reserve near the new playground.

And Transition Town Thames, which has been planting fruit trees around Thames, has planted fruit trees at the reserve.

ends

© Scoop Media