Cornerstone celebrating 40 years

Continued from page 1. More than 30 programmes take place at the centre every week.

They include programmes like Sit and Be Fit, Te Reo M ori, a book group, a walking group, bridge, 500 and scrabble, Pilates, Tai Chi, Yoga, dancing, the community singing group Sing For Your Life and monthly social lunches.

Cornerstone also offers a drop-in centre in the comfortable lounge, where people can chat, read the newspaper and have a cup of tea or coffee.

Ezee meals is another initiative. These are convenient frozen tasty low cost meals suitable for everyone – the elderly, disabled, students, busy people or those unable to cook for themselves.

Cornerstone had its genesis with a group of people from a number of churches in Khandallah, including the Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and Brethren, one of the group’s founders Dermot Byrne told the “Independent Herald”.

They all wanted to be active in the community in a way that helped people.

The question they were all asking was: “How could we reach out into the community and make a difference”.

The group focused on the Village Well Principle. In past times, the village well was a place where people not only obtained water, but met and socialised.

“One of the big problems in suburbs is loneliness, especially for people who are retired, widowed, young or unemployed,” Dermot says. The idea that the group looked at was that “if we could run activities, people would come.

“As it turned out, it was very successful,” he says.

Dermot, his wife Keri, and Peter and Isobel Delaney looked at a building at 2 Ganges Road.

They decided to invest in it and set aside a space for a community centre – and Cornerstone was born.

To set up and run the centre, they established the Khandallah Cornerstone Resource Centre Trust in 1983.

The timing proved providential too.

“One of the things that happened in the late 80s, the government at the time decided to close mental institutions,” Dermot says.

“Nobody asked what kind of community are you releasing these people into. When you put people with mental health problems in the community they are isolated.

“Having a place where people didn’t have to spend money, could have a cup of tea or coffee and could socialise was important.”

Cornerstone provided that, being a centre for people with mental health problems up to the 90s.

The Cornerstone Community Centre ran from the Ganges Road premises for nearly 30 years and then moved to the Khandallah Town Hall.

“We went to the [Wellington City] Council with a plan and it took us eight or nine years to do an upgrade of the town hall,” Dermot says.

Achieving that was significantly assisted by a fund-raising campaign, which raised $400,000 towards an adaptive restoration of the town hall.

Extensive modernisation and restoration was carried out on the town hall and this was completed in August 2011.

On completion of the upgrade

Cornerstone moved in to continue its work and to manage the Khandallah Town Hall under a memorandum of understanding with the Wellington City Council.

“We are in a partnership with the council,” Dermot says. “In fact we could not exist without the partnership with the council.”

Over the 40 year history of Cornerstone “we have had some wonderful things happen,” Dermot says.

Currently, he adds, “we are looking for trustees.

“In order to keep the trust going we need to have trustees.

“It is not an onerous task but it is an important one. It is mainly an oversight role and we meet six times a year as a board.

“It is definitely worthwhile making sure Cornerstone continues to exist and it will continue to exist if people step forward.”

People interesting in becoming trustees can contact Dermot at 021 372 525, or Dermot.byrne25@gmail.com.