Standing up for Merivale

Merivale - & Proud Of It!

Learning & Loving It

Staff from Te Khanga Reo o Tutarawnanga have been please to see numbers of whnau attending rising steadily. Staff have been working hard to accommodate each other attending te reo Mori courses & four of the team are currently furthering their knowledge & education in this way. Khanga Reo is organising cooking and nutrition classes on Mondays contact Katie on 578 2216 for more details.

After a number of negative news stories in the regular media we have decided to even things up a bit with a regular news sheet that focuses on good and positive things happening in our community. While we all know that Merivale has its problems we also know that we live and work in a real community where there are plenty of good things happening and where people care about others and the place they live. Top of the good news this week is that after our conflict with Sunlive in which our community was labelled dangerous & then a lot of nasty, hate filled & small minded comments were posted to their website. So, we held a protest outside their offices. I counted around 50 people who turned up. The great news is that our protest was successful, with Brian, Ross and other staff of Sun Media courageously coming out to talk with us and offering apologies for the offence caused. We accepted their apologies, and look forward to continuing what has been a largely positive and beneficial relationship with the Weekend Sun and SunLive. We completed our protest with a hongi between the Sun Media staff and protesters.

Green Fingers - Growing Food

Growing food & gardening is taking off in Merivale with plenty of school & community gardens underway or starting up. The Khanga Reo are working hard on bringing their gardens back into shape & the Merivale Whnau Aroha Centre & Merivale School are both enjoying great harvests from their established gardens. Housing New Zealand agreed to let the Merivale Community Centre organise a community garden in the vacant property on the corner of Alverstoke & Fraser Sts. People have already come forward to be involved & take part in running the gardens but it will take a community effort to make the most of the opportunity. If you can help, or want to learn more about growing food then come along & get involved.

Passionate & Positive Young People

Eight children from Merivale School recently talked in public about just how important reading & the Mobile Library Service is to them. The group went with School Principal Jan Tinetti to the Mount Library where they talked to the Friends of the Library Group & a Tauranga City Councillor. Everyone was blown away by how awesome our children were & how positive they were about reading. There may even be a chance to go & talk to a City Council meeting in the future watch this space for more news!

Let Us Know
If you have any positive stories or good news (no matter how big or small) we can tell people about, please get in touch with John at the Merivale Community Centre: 5786450 or john@merivale.org.nz