Paralympic gold medal-winning skier Adam Hall became the first Hall of Fame inductee on Saturday in a surprise announcement by Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyal Cocks at a parade reception held to honour the adaptive athlete.
Hall's recent sporting success - he won gold in the standing slalom at the Vancouver paralympics in February and subsequently became the first disabled athlete to win the overall Otago Sportsperson of the Year award last month - has become the catalyst for the newly-created Wanaka Hall of Fame.
Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyal Cocks, board member Carrick Jones, and Queenstown Lakes District Council's Wanaka service centre manager Barbara East told the Otago Daily Times they were behind the move.
Hall's sporting success has set a provisional precedent, but future Hall of Fame nominees could be considered from a variety of fields and might include high-achievers with cultural, musical, business, and/or community-service backgrounds, the group said.
The Hall of Fame movers have agreed on a basic outline for the civic investiture, which will be put to the Wanaka Community Board at a meeting today, Mr Cocks and Mrs East said.
"Hall of famers" would have their names and achievements recognised by way of a plaque hung in the Lake Wanaka Centre, Mr Cocks said.
The trio's initiative appears to have caught some of their community board colleagues unawares, with Queenstown Lakes deputy mayor John S.
Wilson admitting to the ODT yesterday he "knew nothing" about the Hall of Fame.
"It's complete news to me. It hasn't been discussed [at a formal level] at all," he said.
Mrs East agreed the Wanaka Hall of Fame idea had "come out of nowhere" and there were a number of decisions to be made by the community board as to how the civic awards might be administered.
The group's intention had been to honour Mr Hall's "huge" achievement with a noteworthy civic investiture, which could then be a catalyst for more of Wanaka's high achievers to aspire to, Mrs East said.
