Otago’s unique heritage in the spotlight

The Otago Community Trust is helping to preserve the region’s history in several unique ways this month.
 
$25,000 from the month’s donations will be used by the Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust of NZ to publish a biography on influential architect Robert Lawson.
 
Robert Lawson contributed to the architectural designs for many of Otago’s significant early buildings from 1862 to 1902, including First Church, Lanarch Castle, Otago Boys High School and the ANZ Bank.
 
The book is planned to be a work of art with photos and stories reflecting the enduring legacy of great architecture.
 
As well, the Community Trust is involved with the restoration of the North Otago Club, a Category 1 historic building in Oamaru’s historic precinct. This $20,000 donation will help restore and paint the front of the original building.
 
A prominent facade in the landscape heritage, the building has been used by the North Otago Club since its inception in 1916, but is also available for community use.
 
The Trust has continued its support for the Dunedin Heritage Festival, with a $10,000 donation for next year’s event. The theme of this Festival on March 18-21 2011, is “Layers of Gold,” that will be held in partnership with the Gabriel's Gully Goldrush celebration at Lawrence marking 150 years since the discovery of payable gold.
 
The Trust is also helping to make history as well as celebrating it, through a unique project with some local youngsters.
 
Its $1500 donation to the Green Island Kindergarten will assist with the cost of designing and making a feature stained glass window using the children’s’ art, for the new premises currently under construction.
 
In total twenty six organisations throughout Otago received donations totalling $366,000 from the Otago Community Trust for December, said CEO Keith Ellwood. This also included $35,000 to the Otago Community Hospice Trust for its Palliative Care Program, and $25,000 to the Skeggs Foundation to support local coaches.
 
In other donations, the Otago Community Hospice Trust benefited from a Trust donation of $35,000 this month, for its Palliative Care Program.
 
This donation will assist the Otago Community Hospice to implement the Liverpool Care Pathway of the Dying Person in its Palliative Care settings, an approach based on international best practise standards that guide the care provided for people who are dying in any health care setting. It was developed in Liverpool in the late 1990s, and is increasingly used in New Zealand as well as overseas.
The Otago Community Hospice is the only community-based specialist palliative care provider in Otago, and aims to partner with other health care providers to introduce this approach to the wider community in the future.
 
In addition $25,000 will go to the Skeggs Foundation, administered by Sport Otago, to support the work of 33 local coaches.
 
The funding goes to support high-performance coaches from a range of codes to help our local athletes achieve their goals. It assists predominately volunteer coaches with costs from training promising athletes, or for professional development to improve their own coaching skills.
 
The skills, dedication and commitment that volunteer coaches provide to is usually only obvious to the athletes, their families and supporters.  The Trust’s donation is a small way of saying how much their services are appreciated by the wider community