Key centre figure farewelled

FULL-ON: Lorraine Gittings, community development manager at the Carterton District Council, has resigned. PHOTO/FILE

The Carterton District Council has farewelled its community development manager, Lorraine Gittings, who recently resigned from the role due to ill-health.

The council held a farewell function in her honour this week.

Chief executive Colin Wright said he admired the excellent work Mrs Gittings undertook to make the Events Centre "the heart within Carterton".

"Lorraine has made a big difference to the wider community with her community development activities in conjunction with other agencies. She leaves big shoes to be filled and we wish her well."

Mrs Gittings, who formerly worked as a strategic relationship manager for the Ministry of Social Development, took up the council role after moving to Carterton in 2011.

She said the job had been a great way for a relative newcomer to get to know the community, and she had enjoyed the often "full-on" role.

"It's been a great privilege to be able to work there."

Starting work shortly before the opening of the Events Centre and just a few weeks before the centre's first booking, had been challenging, defying her expectations of moving to the country and taking on a "cruisy" job.

"It was quite fraught because the building had been quite controversial."

But it had been a rewarding time, too, as she witnessed people's initial reaction to the finished building, Mrs Gittings said.

"Their eyes would be like saucers and they would say, 'Do we deserve this'? and I said, 'Of course you do' - so that was quite humbling."

There was a real willingness in Carterton to do what was right for the greater good, and a highlight of the job had been seeing the difference the building made to how Carterton people thought about their town, she said.

It had also been a pleasure to work for the council and with a team that was "all on the same page and wanting to achieve the same things".

While it had been a difficult decision to leave, the time had come to "pull the pin and focus on me", she said.