JOHN ELLIOTT: LOCAL NEWS
Ponsonby Community Centre Update HOW TIME FLIES. I’M NOT QUITE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER WHEN THE PONSONBY Community Centre was the Ponsonby School, after all it was last century, but it just seems like yesterday that Cathy Hall was Centre Manager. And yet, the warm and friendly chuckles of Rob Matamu have been reverberating around the complex since 2008. Ponsonby News had a catch up with Rob. Last time we spoke the Community Centre was just bedding in the Leys Institute Gym as part of the centre’s activities. That has been a very successful operation. When the Ponsonby Community Centre took over the Leys space in 2012 there were two classes - a zumba class and a kids’ gym class. Use of this grand old space has exploded since then. At peak times it is nearly fullmornings, after school and early evenings. There are now 25-30 gym classes alone, plus aerial fitness, tai chi, crossfit, hula dance classes and Equippers youth group - all in the Leys Institute Gymnasium Hall. Recently, a documentary film crew shooting a film about the life of Sir Edmund Hillary, used the Leys Gym Hall for a segment because it was so similar to the one used by Ed Hillary when he was a boy at Auckland Grammar School. In the main complex on Ponsonby Terrace, the Ponsy Kids preschool caters for up to 40 children. It too, is at full capacity. Rob and Rachael Brodie, Financial Administrator, have their hands full hiring out space to a multitude of local organisations including yoga, meditation, speech and drama, jazz/hip hop dance classes for children, feldenkrais, pattern making, preschool ballerina, life drawing, aikido, toastmasters and much, much more. The Ponsonby Community Centre is a very busy place morning, noon, and night. They take bookings for casual events like birthday parties or wakes. The World Belongs to the Dissatisfied
Rob Matamu is full of praise for his board members. He has some very able and experienced people including chairperson John Hill who, as a longtime St Mary’s Bay resident, has had a number of significant local community roles over the years, including chair of the old Western Bays Community Board. John Hill is ably assisted by veteran local Gwen Shaw as secretary, and a who’s who of local dignitaries as board members - Kerry Marshall, Chris Small, Patricia Reade, Kate Stanton, Russell Hoban, Keith Hargis, and Tracey Magan. Pippa Coom completes this impressive line up as the Waitemata Local Board representative. The Ponsy Kids Preschool is led by Julie Ferguson, head teacher, and Fleur Rehm, assistant supervisor. The preschool is open from 8.30am to 4pm and has been in operation for 16 years. It still has strong support from Ponsonby families. The preschool works alongside Ponsonby Kindergarten next door. Late last year the preschool completed an upgrade including an enlarged sandpit and a new vegetable garden. Further work is planned. Ponsy Kids now offers four scholarships a year to needy families. Ponsonby Community Centre is lucky to have the experienced and very personable Rob Matamu as Centre Manager. He has 14 years behind him as a Centre Manager and came to Ponsonby from Waitakere City Council. He absolutely oozes enthusiasm for his job and for the Ponsonby Community which the centre serves. Rob also has a keen interest in history, including the history of the Ponsonby area. He has a bunch of old black and white photographs on his office wall which he proudly shows off to visitors. There is now a ‘gluepot room’ at the centre, and Rob laughed out loud when I asked him: “Where is the bar?” He also told me that his office was once the TAB. That must have been a long time ago, because I’m partial to a punt and have been around Ponsonby since I was Deputy Principal at Bayfield School in 1974, and I don’t remember a TAB being there. The Ponsonby Community Centre is a bustling busy place, where Rob Matamu and his team work with joy and enthusiasm in the interests of young and old alike, in the Ponsonby community that we love. (JOHN ELLIOTT) F PN DEADLINE - 20TH OF THE MONTH
PONSONBY NEWS+ July 2015
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