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Cunitia Wilkinson
The Warkworth Town Hall Restoration Trust set an ambitious fundraising goal of $675,000. Along with a $300,000 Lotteries Grant they have raised another $75,000 for a new kitchen and continue to fundraise for the last $300,000. Behind every dollar raised is a group of volunteers, led by Glennys Oliver, who has put on raffles, fashion shows, concerts, film competitions and heritage evenings. We talked to one of the trustees, Cunitia Wilkinson, while she sold raffle tickets at Countdown to fund the hall opening celebrations.Meeting new people has been one of the pleasures of fundraising for Cunitia.
“It will be nice to see the Town Hall used again by the community. We look at the small children and we think hopefully this is something they will grow up with.”
While fundraising, the volunteers have heard stories from older generations, often about dances, movies, prize givings and debutante balls.
Cunitia’s memories include her first visit for the National Party selection with her late husband Peter Wilkinson, who was the Member for Rodney from 1969 to 1978.
Along with heritage reasons for keeping the building and a need for a Town Hall, she’s witnessed how keeping an historic building triggers memories.
“I’m a great believer in keeping historical things because if you lose something like the Town Hall, which has been so much of Warkworth life over 100 years, you lose that history associated with it,” Cunitia says.
Warkworth and New Zealand doesn’t have a huge historical stock, so it’s important to keep what we do have, she says.
“It’s easier for future generations to envisage what it was like because they’ve got the setting.”
When Cunitia joined the long-running Town Hall Committee she didn’t know what she was getting herself in to, with a “battle behind the scenes” to maintain and restore it. But, once the decision was made to restore it, and the Trust was set up, she says the community came out to help fundraise. She says Glennys, an old friend, became a driving force.
“She won’t ask you to do anything she won’t do herself. She’s very hands on and just amazing.”
She says they tried to do fundraising functions for different parts of the community to make everyone feel like they had a stake in the Town Hall.
As the opening approaches, Cunitia hopes the community will take ownership. She thinks it will suit film, drama, dance, music, culture, functions and even Town Hall meetings.
“I hope the people who use it will appreciate the hard work that’s gone into it, and it will serve its purpose and, whatever they do, it’s shown to its best effect.”
And as for its future? “Do we put it in cotton wool and put it away? No, I hope that the community will be proactive in taking part in the administration and looking after it, and there will be proper recognition of the fact that all public buildings need to be updated from time to time and that councils make proper provision for the upkeep of these very precious buildings.”
Cunitia says it would help if the money the hall earned went back into its upkeep.
