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Fun and games were the key to the success of Ranfurly 125 celebrations in December and the fun is not over yet with organisers distributing thousand of dollars in the community.
Ranfurly 125 event co-ordinator Kristina Wills thanked sponsors. They managed to make almost every event free during the weekend-long celebration and still have $39,000 to distribute in the community, she said.
As part of the celebrations a community orchard was planted using trees grafted from old varieties found on surrounding properties. The group caring for the orchard had been given $3000 towards maintenance.
The idea had intrigued other communities and there was one being established at Bannockburn, Ms Wills said.
Contributing to a purpose-built 4WD vehicle for the Ranfurly Volunteer Fire Brigade was one of the fundraising aims of the events and $11,000 had been given towards that.
A Ranfurly history was written for the centenary and the next 25 years would be recorded in a book written by relatively new Ranfurly resident Gail MacKenzie with a grant of $10,000.
Signs to welcome people to Ranfurly were a work in progress and $10,00 had been allocated for that. The Ranfurly Lions club were managing that project and Ms Wills and Ranfurly photographer Janyne Fletcher were
The remaining $5000 was given to the Maniototo Art Deco Museum. Secretary Karen Munro said they were commissioning a sculpture of coloured steel to sit outside the building.
Ranfurly 125 Family Fun Day co-ordinator Shirley Clark said it had been an amazing weekend and the community was "just buzzing" afterwards.