At the culmination of 6 years work, the Rotary Club of Awapuni opened the first Steven Adams Basketball court in NZ , at Awapuni , Palmerston North in August 2018 ... and it was opened by Kiwi NBA star, Steven Adams.
- Consulting with its local community -tick
- Learning what’s its community needs are -tick
- Working in partnership with other community groups -tick
- Using Rotarians skills to apply for grants and sponsorship – tick
- Having a strategic plan (long term commitment 6 years to date) - tick
- Creating a high profile in their local community – tick
- Due to high profile in community a new Rotaract club has been chartered -tick
- High Visible Rotary branding in its community -tick
- Rotarians having fun - tick
- 50% increase in membership – tick
Club Growth – Community Benefits.
At the culmination of 6 years work the Rotary Club of Awapuni opened the first Steven Adams Basketball court in NZ, at Awapuni , Palmerston North earlier this month.
The suburb of Awapuni sits beside another tough area which has a few higher profile gang murders and raids, as such, the other suburb got most of the funding and attention from the city and social services. The need for Awapuni was no less and the social research showed that if you built a supportive community that crime and violence will reduce.
The first step was to get the neighbors together and ask them if they saw it the same way. So was born the Awesome Awapuni Day 2012, a free day of food, entertainment and 20 tents containing social service providers. They were expecting 500 but got 1,000 neighbors attend, many they had not meet before. They developed the now legendary Awapui Rotary Club vegetable stir fry…one of the top requests every year since and still today. Also, the Awesome Awapuni community group was formed, a bunch of people who worked or lived in Awapuni.
They then asked the community how they wanted to feel about their community? They got a lot of “We want” “We need”, “Other suburbs have one, why can’t we…?
This group consulting with its community came up with its OBJECTIVE: To uplift the “Mana” of Raleigh Park and Awapuni suburb.
The demographic population is made up of 70% Maori, 15% Rarotonga/Pacific Islanders, 15% Refugees
To achieve this objective it was not going to be just another coat of paint and woodchips that they requested and club members wanted to complete in 1 year. The Awesome Awapuni community group asked the community in one of their free pot-luck workshops, community soup nights, movie night and Awesome Awapuni Day (2017) want they wanted.
The 3 key elements for the park that were developed were: meeting place, family safe, basketball court.
The 3 key physical elements designed into the park were: Family size Gazebo with double electric BBQ and seating: Lighting and open play area: New full-sized Basketball court.Rotarians staged the process with the community engagement and council oversite, but it was the Rotary Club Charitable Trust that was the legal entity that applied for funds and ultimately its reputation that allowed the club to raise $280,000.
This has been a real community initiative and has the backing by multiple community groups all of whom have had major input into the project to date.
One month after securing all the 280,000 funding they got a call from NBA basketball player, Steven Adams’s brother, Ron, asking if they would like a NZ first Steven Adams Basket ball court. They said yes and the rest is history. Ron himself has memories of shooting hoops on the very old court at Raleigh Park.
The court has an urban mural painted on it by Askew 1, a global graffiti artist who was raised and tagged in Awapuni.
This was a collaboration between Rotary, Council and Community that was then overlaid with sporting superstar who will put his name to a court as a symbol of aspiration and achievement.
This project was not about building a flash playground and court to give the community…then pat themselves on the back and say Rotary did well then walk away. This is a start of a community who now asks each other “what shall we do next?”
Some of the many media articles: