Many hands make a light work(ing bee)
St Patrick’s Day may seem like a strange day to have a working bee at the Marist St Pats Clubrooms – but, given everything else that has been going on around the Club preparing for the 2024 season, Sunday 17th March was the only day that worked! Special mention must go to Brendan Reidy - for wearing green! Brendan may have been off somewhere afterwards...
Being a Sunday and St Paddy’s Day did not deter a group of keen volunteers who gave up their weekend sleep-in and big Irish breakfast to get the Clubrooms ready for the season ahead.
All toiled hard and some workers deserve special mention.
There was the “tree team.” Led by Chris Welch directing his apprentices Brendan Reidy and Iain Potter. This team tackled the trees around the clubrooms, excelling with chainsaws and weed eaters. This team sawed, dragged, and toiled to recapture the views across Hataitai Park and on to Kilbirnie. All Health and Safety standards were met, the only casualties being the flora.
There was the water blasting efforts of Steve McGill. He did a hell of a job and returned on the Friday following to finish this huge task.
MaryAnn gathered a team around her to clean out the storeroom – sending a ton (literally) of “stuff” to the tip in the process. Thanks Cal Iaccarino and Tim Kennard for providing the muscle.
Maria Masina has the trophies sparkling and looking their best for another season.
Fred Lefaoseu and his daughter tackled the lighting and heating audit – and produced a report of rare quality in the process.
Once again, the sublime carpentry skills of John Poutawera were on full display – the picnic table on the deck is now good as new and was a great spot for the post working bee refreshments and review. John also got stuck into fixing the aftermath of a nasty leak.
Add to that the painting mastery of Rob Evans – working under instruction from Soody of course - and the window cleaning prowess of Lourdaiz Ah Chong and Dave Woods and you can see there was a lot going on.
Dave was also up on the roof cleaning gutters and fixing leaks ready for the winter rain.
Ken Ah Kuoi was there armed with a carpet cleaning machine – and he made quick work of the carpets – leaving them smelling fresh, clean, and ready to face the challenges of another season.
Grant Sullivan completed the sound checks, and Henry Fidow did what he does best...
Of course, there were many others in attendance and all did a fantastic job and worked hard for a good few hours to get the facility ready for its first “event” of the season – that being the clash between the Marist St Pats Colts team and the boys from St Pats College – playing for the coveted Xavier Reidy Cup.
Thanks to everyone who came and gave their time – it was a fun morning, and we ticked plenty off that list!
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