‘‘Relieved’’.
That’s the word Salvation Army community ministries director Andrew Wilson uses to describe the feeling of seeing the Sallies’ new community hub, at Frankton’s Remarkables Park, finished.
Ahead of its official opening this Saturday, Wilson says it’s been ‘‘an incredibly long road’’ to get to this point.
About 30 years in the planning — the Sallies were keen on a replacement for their former Camp St site since the ’90s — it’s taken five years of hard slog and concerted fundraising to see it to fruition.
With a ballpark budget of $10 million, Wilson says they ‘‘found money under every nook and cranny that we could’’ to fund it.
‘‘We were fortunate enough that we were able to sell our Camp St building and our property that we, as the officers, live in in town, which certainly … added to the pool.
‘‘But we’ve had to draw from the Wellington Salvation Army in terms of our national property funds, as well as Central Lakes Trust, Community Trust South, family trusts and the goodwill and support of our community as well,’’ he says.
Construction first started in August last year on the Pin Oak Dr site, which includes a 120-seat auditorium, a 50 square metre multi-function room, and space for one-on-one meetings.
It also contains office space for partner agencies to lease long-term — moving in are the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust and part of the Central Lakes Family Services team and Te Kura, a national correspondence school.
Social services will still be reachable from both the Remarkables Park site and the Gorge Rd site — which will still be home to the family store and community ministries expression services — Mondays to Fridays.
Saturday’s opening celebrations include a dawn blessing, open to anyone to attend, an invite-only celebration and culture evening, featuring the Salvation Army brass band from Dunedin, a Sallies waiata group from Christchurch, and a Fijian and local dance group, and the inaugural church service on Sunday morning.
