Photos Joseph JohnsonMid Canterbury Softball will host a secondary schools softball tournament next week for the first time in 30 years.

Eight boys teams and five girls teams from schools all over the South Island will compete on five diamonds at Argyle Park starting Monday in the four-day event.

Tournament director Carl O’Neill said Argyle Park would be transformed for the event with the addition of a portacom to act as headquarters and extra netting erected around the diamonds.

Mid Canterbury Softball has also used the occasion to update some of its equipment, including bases.

The division two event will be supported by New Zealand Softball, who have appointed umpires.

O’Neill, who played softball in his youth, has previously coached Ashburton College teams and said Ashcoll teams had been attending school softball tournaments for the past five years.

The girls are this year being coached by Pat Patea and are a mix of ages from Year 9 to 13. The side includes New Zealand representative Kate Flanagan, who plays her club softball in Christchurch but is a student at the college.

The boys are coached by Ritchie Johnstone and are also a mix of ages, though there was more experience at secondary school tournament level.

O’Neill said games were scheduled to get under way at 9am on Monday. Both AshColl teams will have games at 5pm on the opening day.

He said spectators were welcome at the event to support both local and visiting teams and there would be some good softball talent on display.

The girls will play a round robin and include teams from AshColl, Buller, Southland, Dunstan and Burnside.

The boys will play in two pools of four with crossover play beginning Wednesday. The teams include AshColl, Southland, Timaru, Lincoln, Rolleston, Dunstan and two Christchurch schools.

Both finals will be on Thursday, starting with the girls at 12pm.

By Linda Clarke © The Ashburton Guardian - 15 March 2018

Lisa Lemberg, enjoying a computer earned through working with the Ashburton College work-to-earn-a-computer project. Photo Sue NewmanWhen Ashburton College principal Ross Preece put out a call for employers to help his students earn their own computer, it generated a strong response from the community.

Preece received plenty of phone calls of support, but what he did not receive were enough people willing to employ a student for about 25 hours so they could earn their own computer.

Several did, but he has a list of 13 students keen to be part of the project and few employers to match them with.

He came up with the project as a way to help students whose families were finding it difficult to provide their children with a laptop or Chromebook.

While the school had a number of devices that could be shared, the ideal was for each student to have their own, he said.

It was all about providing an equitable outcome and a level playing field for all students, Preece said.

“I’m a real believer in giving kids a helping hand rather than a hand-out and we’ve looked at the option of giving kids the opportunity to earn a computer.”

The scheme involved a business or an individual employing a student for $15 an hour for about 25 hours until enough money has been earned to pay for a Chromebook.

The business or the individual gives the college the $400 the student earned and the school gives that student a Chromebook.

It’s theirs to keep.

There’s an added incentive for the employer as the donation to the college comes with a tax refund.

Some students who had been through the scheme had found an additional benefit in that they secured part-time work, Preece said.

One of those finding work was Year 11 student Lisa Lemberg.  She worked as a caterer providing sandwiches, cakes and sandwiches to a fund raising group and said it was a great experience knowing the work she was doing would earn her a much needed device.

For her first two years at college Lisa used a school device but said it was much easier to manage her workload with her own Chromebook.

Employers who have work to offer a student should contact the Ashburton College office and ask for the principal’s secretary.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 10 March 2018

Ashburton mayor Donna Favel (right) at the launch of the Celebration of Suffrage 125 with Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy. Photo suppliedWomen might have had equal rights with men for many years in New Zealand, but it has taken 140 years for Ashburton to elect its first female mayor

And today, on International Women’s Day, current mayor Donna Favel says it is important to reflect on how far New Zealand has moved to becoming a society where gender equality is now the norm.

“We’re in a very fortunate place when we consider what our predecessors came from and the freedoms they had to fight for,” she said.

And while it is important to remember how much the world had changed for women, it was equally important to understand how this was still not the case for many women in many countries, Favel said.

And even close to home there was still inequality particularly when it came to pay parity, she said.

“It’s wonderful to see women given opportunities, but if we’re talking equality it’s not women wanting to be above men or winning over men, it’s about an even playing field, on where women and men have equal opportunities.”

Closer to home, Favel said it was apparent in the number of women running businesses, working in the professions and in top jobs, that women were taking the opportunities equality offered.

As well as having its first female mayor, Ashburton has four female district councillors.

That’s a long way from the days when women were said to be too emotional to be part of a council or where women were not welcome in council chambers because they would be a distraction to men.

If women were allowed in the chamber, they had to be plain women, she said.

Favel was in Wellington yesterday for the Celebration of Suffrage 125 launch which was attended by Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy.

Today and tomorrow she will be attending a meeting of rural and provincial mayors.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 8 March 2018