Archive for March, 2011

Shop local and keep our community smiling…

Mar 31, 2011 No Comments by

It’s your choice where you shop or do business, but every time you do it locally you’re helping to keep our community smiling…because then local businesses can employ more local people, support more local organisations and clubs, re-invest back into the community and better protect the character of our awesome city. YOUR PURCHASE…. Ensures we [...]

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Monday Memo – 28 March 2011

Mar 31, 2011 No Comments by

MONDAY MEMO …from Heart of Gisborne city manager, Kathy McVey The week ahead:  Time ticks along doesn’t it? We’re nearly into April! And Ken and I are getting all sorts of jobs out of the way. We’re applying for road closure consent for Heart of Gisborne Children’s Christmas Parade, tentatively booked for 4pm, Saturday 3 December [...]

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Tidying up our town

Mar 29, 2011 No Comments by

26 March 2011 : What do you do if you see rubbish lying around on the footpaths in town? Do you ignore it, pick it up or write a Letter to the Editor? Do you complain to your friends? What about if you see a broken bottle? Or notice weeds growing in between the pavers [...]

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Trouble-free busking

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

19 March 2011 We’ve got Lions in town this weekend and a bunch of surfers here next week. That’s 200 Lions Club members and partners from around the district, followed by 144 top international surfers, and their entourage, here for the O’Neill Cold Water Classic! I’m wondering whether some of Gisborne’s fantastic local musicians – [...]

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How to show you love Gisborne

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

 12 March 2011 Our mission at Heart of Gisborne is to make the city centre more vibrant…but how to define vibrant? Does vibrant mean shops with gleaming-clean and well-lit windows featuring fabulous retail displays? Does it mean lawyers and dentists sit in buildings that are shoulder-to-shoulder with nightclubs boasting colourful doorways? Does vibrant mean clean [...]

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Life without alcohol

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

5 March 2011 I wonder if Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker poured himself a stiff drink on Tuesday. Not only did 1 March 2011 mark exactly one week since a 6.3 magnitude earthquake decimated his city;  the start of March also closed the national Drug Foundation’s FebFast fundraiser. The fundraiser has had almost 1000New Zealanders on [...]

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Christchurch quake very close to home

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

26 February 2011 It’s astonishes me how much worse a tragedy close to home feels than one that takes place thousands of miles away. Last week’s earthquake in Christchurch shocks us more deeply  than, for example,  Haiti’s  earthquake on 12 January.  In a fantastic piece of writing, titled “The day the earth roared” Vicki Anderson, [...]

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Good things take time

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

19 February 2011 As an ex-journalist I know headlines sell newspapers. But I was appalled by this newspaper’s horror headline regarding a recent Heart of Gisborne Satisfaction Survey. “Heart of Gisborne falls short” it shouted. The survey, which is available in its entirety on Heart of Gisborne’s website, showed that the organisation I manage is [...]

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Counting down to Te Matatini

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

12 February 2011  Yippee! We’re only days away from Te Matatini. Less than a week to go until the world’s largest celebration of Māori Performing Arts, the 19th international Kapa Haka Festival of New Zealand. In this biennial event, Kapa Haka groups from all over New Zealand and Australia compete for the “best of the [...]

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Have fun and raise money

Mar 22, 2011 No Comments

4 February 2011 Last week I wrote about FebFast and BikeWise. This week it’s another week, and yet another Annual Appeal. From 7-13 February if you wear red at work, you can raise money for New Zealand’s heart health charity, the Heart Foundation. Because endless appeals for cash are tedious, it’s inspiring to see more [...]

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