SARA is hosting a morning tea every 1st Monday of the month for members of the community. Special guests are invited and the high tea sets are out. Volunteer bakers and servers are involved in making it happen.
Great to see new and old groups gathering at the centre. The groups include yoga, pilates, kungfu, language classes, pippins, singing, cooking lessons and games. The St Albans History group, the St Albans News production team, the cycling group, NNet all back home again.
Whatever the group, cultural, recreational, supportive, educational, religious, spiritual the community centre provides a welcoming space for all.
The centre is holding birthday parties, weddings and other special family occasions. And community events plant sales, markets, public meetings ... a space of everything.
After the destruction of the St Albans Public Library building in the September 2010 Earthquake the St Albans Community Centre has been transient. Thanks to the Christchurch City Council the community centre is now back home in Edgeware Village. The management of Kohinga was awarded to the St Albans Residents Association who opened the centre to the public on April 12 2021.
On April 10 2021 the Christchurch City Council opened Kohinga. The name of this building is gifted by the Upoko of Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri.
In St Albans originally, much of this area was filled with swamp, raupo and flax and was fed by many tributaries.
People of Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu would gather resources from here for generations, until the draining of it into the Ōtakaro / Avon River.
The name Kohinga (to gather, to collect) reflects the ethos of the gathering of the tributaries into this water body, the gathering of the people to gather / collect the natural resources.
Two new projects were outlined at the AGM held in the Edgeware Croquet Club rooms in Forfar Street on September 22. Hine Mohi outlined work being done to make commercial businesses in St Albans more accessible and making footpaths safer. Plans are being drawn up for a fitness track in Malvern Park.
