Ashburton College Year 12 students Denielle De Leon (left) and Vhal Mamuad creating artwork on containers that will form the new reuse shop at the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park. Photo Sue NewmanThe creative work of a group of Ashburton College students will soon be brightening the landscape at the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park.

The park’s reuse shop will shortly move into a new, albeit temporary, home, in several shipping containers and each container will be covered in works of art created by students.

Teacher Milly Brown has worked with her Year 12 art students to create a series of designs that are now close to completion.

It’s been an inspirational project for the students, she said, and one that is exciting to watch unfold as each panel is completed.

Student Jane Cribb said the students had worked in groups on design work. Each container has four artworks – one each on its two long sides and one at each end.

“We planned it out on paper first, then coloured the designs in so they could be sent to the district council to be approved,” she said.

With design work ticked off, the students ‘went for it’, Cribb said.

While most of the work is carried out in class time, several students have been working overtime to ensure their designs are completed by the end of June when the containers will be transported to the resource recovery park.

Paint for the project was donated by Bunnings and Mitre 10 and while that paint was suited to outdoor work, students were having to deal with the impact of rain or frost, Brown said.

The artworks attracted plenty of attention on campus, with several Year 11 and 13 students also volunteering to be part of the project.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 20 June 2019

Among Mid Canterbury’s top young talent battling it out at the weekend were (back row from left) Amelia Swan, Charlotte McKenzie, Jack Jones, (front row from left) Shania Harrison-Lee, Madison Tourle and Jack McIntosh. Photo Heather MackenzieThe Coronation Target Shooting Club’s annual open championship on Sunday attracted a top field from around the South Island, but it was a young local who ended up shooting to the top.

The competition attracted 50 competitors from as far away as Oamaru and Nelson and Marlborough, and it was shot within grades – master, A, B, C and D – with each competitor completing three 10 shot matches for a possible total of 300.30.

Shania Harrison-Lee may have been one of the younger competitors, but that didn’t hold her back, with the young local finishing the day as the master grade champion and the overall top 10 champion.

She was one of 18 Target Shooting Mid Canterbury members – which encompassed the Coronation and Phoenix clubs – taking part in the competition, including six first-season competitors who all performed well.

All up, 13 Target Shooting Mid Canterbury members were placed in the top six in their respective grades.

In the D grade, Mid Canterbury juniors were in fine form, with Charlotte McKenzie winning the D grade title, with Jack McIntosh second, Amelia Swan third, Madison Tourle fifth and Jack Jones sixth.

Coronation’s open championship took place in the heat of the South Island qualifying season, with the South Island selectors set to name their teams for the annual national shoot – the North versus South shoot which would this year be held in Wellington in August – in just over two weeks.

That competition will double as the New Zealand team selection match and a number of Target Shooting Mid Canterbury members were currently in a position to earn national honours.

Harrison-Lee is no stranger to representative honours in the indoor version of the sport, but she had also recently been named in the New Zealand women’s 50m prone team to compete at the Oceania Games in Australia in November.

She was also one of a number of Mid Canterbury shooters who claimed a top six finish at the Canterbury Championships on Saturday.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 19 June 2019

Volunteer ambulance officer Joanne Wakelin has been volunteering with St John and has loved every moment of it. Photo Jaime Pitt-MacKayFor Joanne Wakelin, the enjoyment of being a volunteer ambulance officer is not about the thrill of flashing lights and sirens, but helping those in need.

Wakelin has been a volunteer ambulance officer in Ashburton for five years, one of the many St John staff in Ashburton who work on a volunteer basis.

“It was something that was always on my mind, and my husband is a volunteer firefighter and I was a bit jealous of him helping the community so I wanted to do something as well,” she said.

“It is one of those things you think you want to do but you don’t ever really know until you do it.

“On my first shift I absolutely loved it.

“We were mainly helping out elderly people but I still loved it and the officer I did the shift with said that’s good because if you are here for the sirens and chasing things you are in the wrong place.”

Wakelin said one of the challenges that can come about is juggling the volunteer shifts, working full-time as a teacher and the learning and training to up-skill within St John.

“I wasn’t teaching full time when I started but I am now but I am still able to average a shift a week,” she said.

“For me it is something I look forward to like a hobby, the same as some people look forward to going round in a race-car or playing squash.

“It can be tough to fit studying in with work stuff as I have taken on a bit more management work so you do have to find a balance as far as being a volunteer goes.

“You do have to remember who actually pays you and look after them as well.”

Despite the challenges, the rewarding nature of volunteering means that Wakelin is more than happy to recommend it to anybody that is interested.

“I would absolutely recommend it, you do need to recognise the commitment that you have got to have to do this,” she said.

St John currently has more than 9600 volunteers that assist thousands of people across the country that contribute their time to St John’s front-line ambulance service and a variety of community health programmes.

St John estimates its volunteers contribute more than two million hours to New Zealand communities, and if it were possible to put a financial value on such support, it would be in excess of $30 million dollars.

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 19 June 2019