Gym named after proud ex-student

WELCOME: Chanel College students Sam Siaosi (left), Jackson Maungatai, Matthew Masoe, Devon Gerrard and Zion Apiata, welcome dignitaries into their new gymnasium.

Cardinal John Dew says as a former Masterton schoolboy he would never have imagined opening a school building named after him.

Cardinal Dew officially opened the $1.8 million Cardinal John Dew gymnasium at Chanel College yesterday afternoon.

He is an old boy of St Joseph's College for Boys, which merged with St Bride's College for Girls in 1978 to become Chanel College.

Cardinal Dew, accompanied by principal Grant Miles, board chairman Barry Gleeson, Masterton deputy mayor Graham McClymont, the Cardinal's vicar for education, Jenny Gordon, and Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott, were welcomed with a waiata and haka from the school's culture group. Cardinal Dew said it was his "great delight" that one of his first official duties as a new cardinal was to open the gymnasium.

He joked how he "just scraped through" School Certificate at St Joseph's, after his elder sister passed handsomely.

He said his father had remonstrated with him, saying if he had spend less time playing sport, he would have done better.

"If we had had this facility, I'm sure I would have done worse."

In September 2013, then an archbishop, Cardinal Dew turned the first sod to mark the construction.

The Catholic Schools Board, based in Wellington, had originally pledged $400,000 toward the gym.

In 2012 Cardinal Dew pledged $1 million, which increased to $1.56 million in 2013. The school raised $230,000 through fundraising drives.

Principal Mr Miles called the gymnasium "a wonderful asset to the school and the wider community. "It's been a long-held vision, a lot of hard work, from people spanning a number of generations. It will significantly enhance the programmes of physical education."

The college had frequently had to take teams off-site because they lacked the room "but that is no longer the case.

"This is a gathering place, a place to build a community."

Cardinal Dew had earlier in the morning held an inaugural mass for the Wairarapa parish at Masterton Town Hall.