New manager has a diverse portfolio

The new manager of Wairarapa Community Centre Bev Jack comes to the job with an impressive portfolio of experience in many different fields.

Ms Jack started work in the role this week, succeeding Belinda Noyes and is looking forward to further development of the centre and its work.

She is a former pupil of East School, Hiona Intermediate and Makoura College who, despite her years away from Wairarapa and raising her children, is well able to claim hands-on experience in the wider district as a dairy farmer.

Ms Jack milked cows on farms in both Featherston and Rongokokako, near Eketahuna.

While in Eketahuna, a town she professes to have a real soft spot for, she also worked at Ekeslea Home before moving to Palmerston North where she spent 12 years working in management for Idea Services and studying for a National Certificate in Horticulture.

A keen gardener she specialises in organics and in her last year in Palmerston North was a team leader at a plant nursery.

"I had a craving to come home to Wairarapa and so I moved to Masterton where I am renting a home, but I do intend to buy," she said.

In Masterton she joined the Rose Society and helped fundraise for breast cancer research joining in with Pink Ribbon Day all the time seeking a position for work. When the Wairarapa Community Centre manager's job came free she applied and was successful.