Kaikoura Drill Hall (aka Scout Hall) Upgrade

Kaikoura's Drill Hall was built in 1901. It was gifted to the community around 1954 and has been held under Kaikoura District Council ownership on community behalf ever since.

The Hall (known locally as The Scout Hall) is a vital community space used by many different groups every day. The weekly Community Meal on a Monday night is completely run by volunteers and caters for up to 90 people each night. The Hall is a homely, child-friendly environment that works really well for this type of event.

The Tukete Trust Exercise Classes are held weekdays on mornings and evenings. These free classes are only possible with having a free venue to use.

Kaikoura Youth Council run monthly youth blast events at the Hall - these feature messy games, basketball, pool and fooze ball, food and movies. Having a space that works for all of these activities is really important - Youth Council find that the mix of informal space is a key factor in the success of their events. (There are other groups in and out of the hall as well - these are the regular ones though.)

So... with all of this awesome community stuff happening in the hall, we feel its really important to keep it open and usable for our community.

Kaikoura District Council need to upgrade the hall - it has leaks, the floor is on a bit of a lean and the toilets and kitchen area really need a decent fit out. Structurally, the floor isn't attached to the piles and it will be more than just a paint and tweak job to fix these things. There is some earthquake damage - and Lottery Community Facilities Earthquake fund may be able to help us out with that, however it won't cover the full costs needed to both fix and upgrade.

I'm doing my own kind of fundraiser with a climb of Mt Kilimanjaro with my daughter in August. I've got my workplace on board (Thanks North Canterbury Transportation Infrastructure Rebuild - NCTIR!) and they are helping employees make donations to this project. I'm also inviting people to sign my fundraiser t-shirts and make a donation!

Personally, I help out at the community meal and I've been training for my Mt Kilimanjaro climb with help from the weekday exercise classes - I want to be able to help give back to our community and I would love to have your support to help keep our community hall open and available for use - help us out here please!