After six years of labour, perseverance and patience, The Bridge hub has finally opened its doors to the public.
Saturday marked the official opening of the community facility in South New Brighton, an event the trust chairwoman said was “surreal.”
The hub, at Bridge St, is owned and operated by The Bridge South Brighton Trust, which is made up entirely of volunteers.
“It was just wonderful to have an opportunity to thank so many of the volunteers, supporters, funders and the community and officially open,” trust chairwoman Lisa Tregenza said.
“It’s been quite a journey over quite a few years.”
Because the hub was yet to have its code of compliance signed off by Christchurch City Council, the opening was an invite-only event for guests who had contributed directly to the hub such as funders, volunteers and tradespeople.
The opening started with a dawn blessing, which involved uncovering a carving at the entrance to the hub followed by another blessing to welcome the guests onto the land.
Christchurch East MP Poto Williams, who contributed to the funding of the hub, cut the ribbon and gave a speech as did Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Tregenza.
Guests were then invited to view the different spaces such as the cafe, gallery, courtyard, hall that fits 150 people and wellness rooms. There was also a planting of a pōhutukawa in the courtyard.
The project was first started in 2016, from an abandoned and earthquake-damaged church and has gone through various stages to become fully functional, costing in the vicinity of 1.5 million Tregenza said.
“It feels a little bit surreal because there has been so much planning and so much discussion around detail and in terms of getting it built,” Tregenza said.
“It’s very much seeing our vision come to life with a huge amount of volunteer hours.”
The trust is currently organising a public opening and hoping to host this as soon as possible.
Tregenza said they have already had people indicate interest in using the facility and have their first wellness expo booked for May 22, with 25 practitioners for the public to have access to.
Tregenza said it’s the people that had the vision, created the funding, built it and it’s the people that are now coming into the space to bring it to life.
“As much as it’s a building, it’s about the people.”
