All 230 Fernworth pupils toured the yet to be completed community centre to build a sense of excitement and encouragement about the new development.
"I want them involved from the start so they respect it, love it and have a voice in it.
"If they feel like it belongs to them there’s going to be much better use of it ... and hopefully good respect for it."
She hoped parents would contribute to the project to ensure it would become a multi-generational facility.
"We would like to be involved now until the day it’s finished. We want the kids to be involved in visiting.
"Parents love when their kids are into stuff."
She also hoped both parents and children develop a greater awareness of the many groups operating within the community.
"Whenever you have a central place where you’ve got a mixing of groups and where kids can encounter lots of other positive people, is never a negative visit.
"[It’s] lovely for our kids to have another safe place to go and do things."
She was particularly excited about the computer suite. The hub’s central location enabled easy access.
"A primary school couldn’t ask for a better resource than that. It’s secondary school dreamworld type of stuff ..."
The tour would be used to build discussion about how buildings were made.
"Kids don’t understand that lots has to go into that ... you don’t just get a builder and build a building — there’s a whole lot that has to happen. So it’s good for them to know that."
Pupils would use Minecraft, problem solving skills and "good old-fashioned tables out of cardboard type stuff" to create their own interpretive building design.
"We want them to go out and find the groups that are going to use it and ask what they need because it will raise awareness with all the groups in the community."
Once complete, the centre would host a variety of hireable multi-purpose rooms and had been specifically designed to complement its neighbours — South Alive and The Pantry.
Invercargill Community Connections Charitable Trust (IC2) chairwoman Janette Malcolm said the trust was edging closer towards its total project goal of $4.5 million.
"We’ve just reached 69.8%, which is over $3 million.
The trust had received another $250,000 ILT grant and would be receiving the proceeds of the next Rotary Book Sale being held at the Scottish Hall.
She had hoped some promising corporate and philanthropic donors would be able to bridge the final 30%.
There were some hopeful prospects, but it was still too early to confirm specifics.
Mrs Malcolm believed construction would start later this year.
The building would be partially demolished to make way for the new design.
"They’ve been doing a lot of testing... geotesting, structural engineer testing... just to make sure about the whole exisiting structure.
"The [condition of the] brick was better than expected."
- By Toni McDonald
