A great community effort

 

Last night we went to a celebration dinner.

 

Just round the corner from here is a hotel, the Quality Plymouth. It has a large ballroom, where they served dinner to around 200 people. We were all guests of the 24-hour Book Sale for the New Plymouth Opera House.

 

For 25 years since 1990, the Opera House Trust has run an annual 24-hour book sale. Hundreds of ordinary people have volunteered to help and for the last couple of sales this has included us, wrapping books or operating EFTPOS machines.

 

Over the quarter-century, this event has raised more than a million dollars for improvements and new equipment for the Opera House, and it has enabled the TSB Showplace, as it is now called, to operate debt-free for the first time since its foundation in the twenties.

 

This year is the last time it will be held; to thank the volunteers the Trust shouted everyone dinner and drinks and entertainment.

 

We thought we would know lots of people, but were surprised to find only a handful we knew: a couple of accountants who work at schools Margie has taught at, an old childhood friend of hers, one other former colleague and his wife, and a former colleague of mine from social work days in the eighties.

 

There were several speeches, and the food was delicious: quite ordinary but beautifully cooked and presented rather well for such a large gathering. 

 

We chatted to those we knew and a couple of others and joined in the congratulations for the people who had been the leaders in this impressive community effort.

 

PS: Just across the street from there, and at the back of the houses on the opposite side of our street, is the site of a new hotel, an even bigger one, to be called The Hobson. We have pile-drivers making a noise all day every day at present. I have sketched the building site several times and here is the latest version: