Ashburton Trust Event Centre manager Roger Farr has been part of the complex since the first fundraising efforts began. Photo supplied.Today Roger Farr looks at the Ashburton Trust Event centre and calls it his second home.

He’s the man who has driven the centre from the day it opened and says he’s as passionate about the complex and the role it plays in the district as he was when he first signed on for a one-year, temporary appointment.

For years Roger has been the nuts and bolts man who was happier behind the scenes than on stage.

His specialty is the technical side of things and there’s not much about lighting, sound and special effects he doesn’t know.

His involvement also goes back to the centre’s foundations.

Back when it was still a dream, Roger had just taken over as chairman of Ashburton Operatic, today’s Variety Theatre.

As planning for the project firmed up, operatic wanted to play a strong role in fundraising and that meant coming up with a bold plan.

“As president of Variety Theatre I was on the trust and we were looking at what to do with the excess land we’d bought for the carpark.

“I said, ‘why not put two houses on there and sell them’,” Roger said.

The idea captured the trust’s imagination, but even better, it attracted the support of two people who were to play a key role in ensuring its success, Nigel Smith and Alan McCormick.

“It couldn’t have happened without them.

“We put it in their hands and the amount of community support generated was amazing.”

Two town houses were built in what became known as Project 101.

The build generated a huge amount of public interest and when the two properties were auctioned, the prices were good, seeing $200,000 deposited in the trust’s bank account.

As the new centre took shape, the operatic team began to plan a show that would be a fitting tribute to its past, but would not put too much pressure on what would be newly installed technical equipment.

A compilation of numbers from many shows from the past was created and in the countdown to opening night, Roger says most of the moments and events were lost in a blur of last-minute activity.

“There were still builders on site on opening night and we were still in the auditorium putting hand rails on at midday.”

If things went wrong, Roger can’t remember.

He looks back and compares the old and the new.

“If the old Regent had been standing at the time of the earthquakes it wouldn’t have been standing afterwards,” Roger said.

“It was amazing the shows that were put on in that theatre in spite of its shortcomings.”

Today the theatre is a community asset vested in a trust and administered by a board, but it is Roger and his team who are the face of the complex.

They take an obvious pride in how far the event centre has come in 10 short years, the range of shows it now hosts and, importantly for Roger, there has been significant growth in the strength of local performing arts across all ages.

“The level of local productions is absolutely outstanding,” he said.

The event centre will be marking its 10th birthday with glamour show Mamma Mia, with Roger doing double duty as centre manager and the show’s director.

An official function will be held prior to the show’s opening and a celebration cake will be cut in the foyer with cast members post show.

The 10th anniversary will be a quieter affair than the opening when the red carpet was rolled out and crowds dressed to the nines to celebrate the event.

Celebrations won’t end when the curtain falls for the final time on Mamma Mia’s season, as Roger plans to bring a leading act to town towards the end of the year to mark the anniversary in another way.

Who and when, he’s keeping under wraps.

As the event centre moves into its second decade, it won’t be standing still.

Roger wants to see use of its various spaces increase, the range and number of shows staged increase and he hopes to grow his technical team to a level where they can be hired out to events around Canterbury.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 5 May 2018

Former Ashburton College basketball player Josh Lowe will be playing basketball for Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, when the American school year begins in August. Photo supplied.Mid Canterbury basketballer Josh Lowe will pull on the maroon strip of Lee University in the United States later this year.

The 18-year-old former Ashburton College player has just accepted a scholarship with the Tennessee university and will suit up for their basketball team, the Flames, when the American school year begins in August.

The Flames are a NCAA division II school and invited Lowe for a visit last month while he was training at the Impact Basketball Academy in Sarasota, Florida.

Having watched the 6’8” Kiwi in action on highlight reels from the academy, they put him on the gym floor to test his skills then invited him to join the roster.

Lowe will be the first New Zealander to attend Lee on a basketball scholarship, which covers a large chunk of the cost of playing and studying towards a business degree.

He said he was excited by the chance to play the sport he loves and study abroad.

It has been a whirlwind past 12 months finishing his secondary schooling in Ashburton last year then heading to Sarasota to work on his game at the academy.

But the hard work has paid off and he now joins a throng of talented young Kiwis playing college basketball in the US.

Cleveland, Tennessee, has a population of around 44,000 people and around 5000 students attend the university.

The city is home to the company that produces Mars bars and M&Ms, as Lowe and his father Andrew discovered on their pre-scholarship visit.

The Flames play their basketball in a gym with seating for 2000 spectators and Lowe said the side enjoyed great community support.

Once the season gets under way, he expects to spend three days at university and the remainder with the team, travelling to games.

He will redshirt his first year, training and travelling with the team, but not taking the court.

Lowe has been an age-group rep for Mid Canterbury basketball and was a core player for Ashburton College in the past three years.

The sport at secondary school level has grown in both popularity and skill level in New Zealand in that time and American schools are paying attention to the country that gave them NBA star Steven Adams.

Lowe said the game was faster-paced and more focused on players shooting from the three-point line than in New Zealand.

He has been averaging about 38 per cent from that range.

He returned only this week from the Impact academy and hopes to keep his form by training with a Christchurch club until he heads back to the US in August.

In the meantime, he has plenty of time to fill up on home cooking by mum Jodene.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 4 May 2018

Alyce in the new Rutherford building at the University of Canterbury where she attends 3 hour Physics and Chemistry labs each week.I have officially been a student at the University of Canterbury for the first Term of 2018. I'm studying towards a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours and aiming to specialise in Natural Resource Engineering for the three coming years and really relieved to say that I really can’t see myself doing anything else. As expected, the workload is tough, but I am loving the challenge and am really enjoying the content. I’m trying to involve myself with as much as my timetable will allow. I’m a first-year rep on the executive of the Women In Technology Society. I’m one of the class representatives of my Engineering Physics class which has about 800 people enrolled this means any issues, questions or queries I have to try and resolve or pass on to the right people. This has been a great way to a part of the more behind the scenes part of the University. I am also my Hall Representative for the largest club here at the Uni called the Student Volunteer Army, this role is designed to be the bridge between the halls around campus and the executive of the Student Volunteer Army. As well as these two roles, I am also an In Schools volunteer for Engineering Without Borders. This means I go into Christchurch high schools and hold sessions to Year 9 and 10 students demonstrating the importance of sustainable water and other resources. This is a mix of theory and practical lessons and it’s really rewarding to educate kids on how we can use our resources to help others who may not be as well off. I’m really enjoying being involved in as much as I can and expanding every minute of my time here. At first, the whole Uni experience was insanely overwhelming and it took some time to adjust to. But now that I’ve found my feet it’s safe to say I am really enjoying my time here at University although I would be lying if I said I wasn’t missing Ashburton College. It's great knowing the connections I made through my time at Ashburton College will always be there as well as the general ongoing support that comes from the Ashburton community. I really think that’s something really special.

The funds from the community services award that NBS Ashburton College Alumni Trust provided meant I was able to organise and purchase all of my second hand textbooks before the year begun. I really think this helped me put my best foot forward for the year and I can truly say they are used at least once a day.

Thank you very much once again to you all at the AshColl Alumni. It’s such a great initiative and I love seeing the archives of Ashburton College as it will forever be a place I will fondly remember.

Thanks again,
Alyce Lysaght

Alyce was the recipient of the 2017 NBS AshColl Alumni Scholarship.