Methven Heritage Centre

I am thrilled to have this new opportunity to communicate with constituents in the Methven area through a regular column in Snowfed. I hope over the months to come to tell you about policy and legislative matters which will be of interest to you.

Since becoming your MP last November I have been getting about the new areas of my electorate as much as possible and have enjoyed meeting many of you who live and work in the northwest corner of the Ashburton district.

For those of you who may not know, the Rangitata electorate encompasses all of the Ashburton district, Timaru city, Temuka and Pleasant Point and the rural areas to the east of those communities. I have electorate offices in both Timaru and Ashburton.

Some weeks ago I held a constituent clinic in Methven and was pleased several members of the community took time out to come along and speak to me on issues of concern to them. Later in the year I will hold another clinic in Methven. In the meantime, if there are issues you wish to raise with me please contact my Ashburton office at 3087510 or email me at rangitatamp@parliament.govt.nz

Methven Heritage CentreThe Methven Heritage Centre is going to be a great asset for the Methven community.
I was very pleased the Lottery Grants Board’s Community Facilities Committee granted $500,000 to the Methven District Heritage Association Incorporated for the upgrade of the Mount Hutt Memorial Hall recently. I recently visited the site and viewed the impressive plans the association has for this facility.
 
I understand the Mount Hutt Memorial Hall was used by 49 groups ranging from the Methven Community Board to the Red Cross Blood Bank to Methven Line Dancing last year.  It is an integral part of a healthy community.
The hall redevelopment and projects like it help build strong communities. I congratulate all those involved in this project for their hard work, determination and willingness to get involved.  I am looking forward to seeing the community’s plans for this project fulfilled.

Saturday night saw the second Big Mountain Film Competition Awards night held at Samuels Bar, Methven.

Glitz and glamour was the theme of the night with fairy lights, red carpet and plenty of gold statuettes. A crowd of around 100 people packed the venue and tensions were running high as the film makers waited for the announcement of the winner of the overall grand prize of three 2010 Mt Hutt season passes. Category winner and special award prizes were sponsored by Mt Hutt, Victoria Ski Sports and Cheapskates.

The Patterson Family from Christchurch took top honours with their film “Life as it Ought to be”, taking out both the family and supreme award.

Michael Patterson said it was great to be involved as a family. “With our entry we had my dad who hadn’t been to the snow for 15 years and my father in law who’d never been skiing at all, and we enticed them to come skiing by being part of our movie.”

He said that while the film making process could be hard work at times, it was also a lot of fun and the Patterson’s would encourage other families to be involved, as the resulting movie was something to treasure.

“It’s wonderful to ‘date stamp’ the years with something like this. A lot of people have video footage, but the discipline of having to edit into a three minute movie is really neat.”

The award presentation was followed by screening of the Emmy nominated film “Kayak Iceland” which recently screened at the Queenstown Adventure Film Festival.

The event was a fundraiser for the Methven District Heritage Association which is currently fundraising for the refurbishment of the Mt Hutt Memorial Hall, and development of the interactive exhibition “New Zealand’s Alpine and Agriculture Encounter.” Stage One of this redevelopment is underway and will be finished in early 2010.

Project Manager Roxane Gajadhar, said the calibre of entries was extremely high.

“The judges were blown away by the quality of entries this year, in particular there was some great story telling and humour. The excellent response means we’re on track to see the event return bigger and better in 2010.

“We had fantastic support from the sponsors, Mt Hutt, Victoria Ski Sports and Cheapskates, the Blue Pub and also a big thanks goes out to the Ashburton Creative Communities Fund which made the event possible.”

The results with judges comments, were as follows:

RANDOM CHALLENGE SCHOOL: “Blossoming Dreams” produced by Diana Dixon, Team Triple D. “It was very spirit lifting, and had a good storyline and the shots used captured the emotion that the characters portrayed were well done.”

RANDOM CHALLENGE FAMILY: “Life as it ought to be” produced by Michael Patterson from Team Patterson. “Overall brilliant camera work and sound throughout mixed with a well defined storyline and comedy made this an amazing short film.”

ACTION: “A New Perspective” produced by Roy Schott, The A Team. “Good support of local music by using Doppler. The POV head cameras were used very well by this team to deliver some cleverly crafted shots which gave us (audience) a great perspective of the action these skiers and boarders were doing.”

OVERALL WINNER: “Life as it ought to be” produced by Michael Patterson.

Highly commended awards went to Team Pretzel and producer Kiri Binnersley for the entertaining and innovative mock-umentary “Inside New Zealand” and Neil Walker and Scope Productions for their entry in the action section.

Winners will be available to view on the Mount Hut Website and www.nzski.co.nz and the Methven Heritage Website www.methvenheritagecentre.co.nz.