Quarterly Club Update – Timaru 8

Lots of activities happening down in Timaru!

Over the past 3 months the RT Timaru 8 has met fortnightly and been involved in the following community projects and activities:

Caroline Bay Disc Golf Course

The final development of the disc golf with pouring of concrete tees for each of the course holes is about to start very shortly.

We looked into three options: doing it ourselves, contacting the local polytechnic and giving their trade students the opportunity to apply their skills or getting a local contractor.

After calculating the amount of concrete and the scale of the jo, it was decided to opt for getting a quote from a local contractor. Our ultimate goal for the disc golf is to hand the maintenance and responsibility over to the Timaru District Council, so they were approached to help fund the pouring of the concrete tees.

It was agreed that RT Timaru 8 would fund part of the job with the remaining funds coming from the Council.

Social Networking

The next step for the disc golf is to promote the disc golf course around town. We will be promoting through the social networking and local radio on the locations of where you can hire our discs for free (with a deposit).

Life Education Trust

RT Timaru 8 has worked with life education trust on several occasions in the past and therefore decided to continue our support with a donation.

Meeting Location

To switch up one of our meetings, we hosted it in a newly opened bar, Hector Black’s. This gave us exposure with the lads wearing their Round Table shirts while also supporting a local business with some refreshments during our discussions.

Team Building Bike Trip

A carload of our team also planned a trip to do the old ghost road mountain bike ride over the long Easter weekend. It was a successful trip with 4 of our members taking part.

Big Buddy Programme – Family Works

Kay Beaumont from Presbyterian Support South Canterbury had contacted us to see if our Round Table members would be interested in participating and/or promoting the Big Buddy programme to young boys needing adult role models.

We had posted promotion posters around our workplaces to drum up interest and for one of our meetings, we had a Big Buddy representative come and talk to us. The Big Buddy Program helps kids aged 7 to 14 without a stable parental role model in their life go off with their mentor for a few hours each week.  One of our members has now signed up and currently is mentoring a young lad. He often takes him out mountain biking and then has him around for tea once a week.

Caroline Bay Pontoon

We began investigating the idea of creating a pontoon in the Timaru harbor for the community to enjoy during the warmer months. This already had a precedent with old photos of a boat-shaped pontoon in the 1970s.

We had looked at potential sites in the harbor and various pontoon designs that would work while also talking to local councilors, Environment Canterbury and the Regional Harbormaster about the logistics of installing and maintaining the pontoon.

Shortly after our planning and discussions, a local business had embraced the idea and started their project to complete a pontoon. Although, RT Timaru 8 was not involved in the construction or the launch, we had been acknowledged in instigating the idea.