Bittersweet day as Cornwall Park Playcentre says goodbye and starts its adventure fundraising for a purpose-built facility. Photo / Supplied
Bittersweet day as Cornwall Park Playcentre says goodbye and starts its adventure fundraising for a purpose-built facility. Photo / Supplied
The Cornwall Park Playcentre has said goodbye to the building it has called home for 51 years and is fundraising to build its own facility in St Leonard's Park.
While the closing of the playcentre is sad, Hasting District Council public spaces and building assets manager Colin Hosford said it will open the building to the wider community to use.
Hosford said the building will become a community hub that groups will be able to use.
Changes to the structure will provide fully accessible bathroom facilities and play facilities for those with sensory, mobility and/or learning impairments, and will add to it being a place that the whole community can enjoy.
Hosford said the council worked with the playcentre when it reached the end of its lease to occupy the building.
He explained there was the option to either facilitate the playcentre's relocation to another park or investigate the ability to share the facility with other community groups.
For a playcentre, it was decided it was impractical to share the facility.
The council has agreed to lease a small part of St Leonard's Park to the playcentre to enable the organisation to build and operate a purpose-built facility there.
Rebecca Hill, a manager and educator at the playcentre, said it was emotional leaving the Cornwall Park building.
"We have tried to convince the council to let us stay with no luck, playcentre is more than just a building though, it is about the people," Hill said.
Cornwall Park Playcentre kids on the Blossom parade float. Photo / Supplied
Heartfelt messages have come in, with many people saying it was where they went as a kid or that their kids loved that playcentre.
Funding of $720,000 is needed to build a new playcentre.
This includes the building, services, fencing, paths, landscaping, playground, drawing up plans, building consent fees and a contingency.
If successful, there is a hope the playcentre can continue for another 50 years.
Hill believes "every Hastings kid deserves the option of being a playcentre kid".
She said the Cornwall Park Playcentre was the only playcentre serving the Hastings urban area.
In the meantime, with the new premises not yet built, staff and those attending the playcentre have had to make do, Hill said.
Normally, the playcentre would run four mornings a week out of Cornwall Park, but without a building, they have had to reduce it to just two sessions a week.
The playcentre will run one session a week on a Monday morning from Haumoana Playcentre, and one "out and about" session on a Thursday morning.
The out-and-about sessions will be in Hastings because several families cannot travel as far as Haumoana.
Hill wants to encourage local families to keep attending.
Cornwall Park Playcentre educator Jenny cutting the centre's 50-year jubilee cake last year. Photo / Supplied
"We have felt really supported by our community, when we have been fundraising the feedback we have been getting is heart-warming," Hill said.
Cornwall Park Playcentre has raised $16,000 through supermarket collections at Countdown, garage sales, market days, raffles, sausage sizzles with help from New World, a clothing swap and a Givealittle page.
Playcentre Aotearoa has committed $200,000 to the project, and this month Hill said they had received a $20,000 grant from First Light Foundation.
The playcentre has applications with five other funding agencies.
"Covid restrictions have made fundraising harder and some events were cancelled, but we have worked hard as we know every dollar puts us a step closer to our goal," said the playcentre manager.
Hill explained it's a community project and will require help from many sources to make it happen.
