Karori Rotary is celebrating 40 years of service

Mark Wood from Rotary Club of Karori

The Rotary Club of Karori is one of 36,754 clubs with 1.2 million members in 220 countries and territories around the world.
Our club was chartered in May 1982. This, our 40th anniversary year, is an opportunity to reflect on, and celebrate, the Club’s many activities and achievements over the years. Here is another such achievement.

1999 – 2007: Zealandia
A cornerstone of forest regeneration in Wellington, this fenced wildlife sanctuary in Karori is centred on what was once the city’s water reservoir. Beginning in 1999, Karori Rotary initiated a fundraising project to sell the naming rights for fence posts for the 8.6-kilometre, predator-proof fence - the first stage towards restoring an area of native forest and biodiversity.
This fence post initiative raised nearly $300,000.
Then, in 2003, our Club, in collaboration with all the other Rotary clubs in Wellington, embarked on the ambitious Discovery Area Project, an interpretation and display of the old upper dam construction site, which had been a hive of activity from its inception in 1906. The Discovery Area incorporates historic relics such as rails, bogeys and skips, a replica single-men’s hut, interpretation signage, and a gantry tower, similar to that used during dam construction, which now provides commanding views over much of the sanctuary.
Rotary raised close to $200,000 to meet the total cost of the Discovery Area, which was completed in 2007.
One of our major fundraising efforts was the very successful annual “Gutbuster” race around the boundary fence, for both runners and walkers, which ran for a number of years. Many club members participated and others helped manage the event, both in planning and ‘on the day’. These races also contributed funds for the development of an education centre for school groups.

If you’d like to learn more about Rotary and the personal satisfaction and growth that comes from serving others, please contact Andrea Skews, E andrea.skews@gmail.com, M 022 073 5548 or Phil Oliver, E phil@praxissoftware.co.nz, M021 292 7001.

Pics:
The ‘hidden valley’, future site of Zealandia.
Working bee at the Discovery Area.
Gutbuster competitors leaving the start line at Ben Burn Park.