Emma Twigg (gold medallist in Tokyo, silver in Paris) and Lucy Spoors (silver in Tokyo, gold in Paris) are speaking at a ‘Champions Evening’ function on November 14 at Queenstown’s Cargo Collective Brew Hall.
Twigg was invited as she briefly trained on Lake Hayes, where the club’s based, two summers ago.
"She could see we were doing this project and said, ‘well, let me know when you want to do a fundraiser and I’ll come down’," club president Amy Wilson-White says.
"I just emailed her to say congrats on the Olympics and ask her about this fundraiser and she said, ‘OK, great, shall I bring my mate Lucy?"’
Work’s now well under way with this project, which replaces the club’s Lake Hayes rowing shed with a two-level facility that houses not only boats but also showers, toilets, a gym and erg room and upstairs meeting room, kitchen and viewing balcony.
Stage two of a project that began last summer with four nearby boat sheds, this one’s been supported by thousands of hours of voluntary labour.
It means a facility costed at $1,052,000 has been whittled down to, conservatively, $700,000, Wilson-White says.
As examples, Assembly Architects’ Emma Schmitz, a masters rower herself, donated her design services.
Southern Lakes ITM’s donated materials at cost, and free frame and truss, Aitken Joinery’s given $50,000 worth of windows and Base Construction’s also performed work for free.
Hugo Charitable Trust’s donated $100,000, Central Lakes Trust $223,000 and Aotearoa Gaming Trust $60,000.
Club members have also fundraised, for example by working at the Gibbston summer concert.
Wilson-White also commends their builder, Tovey Construction.
Ex-mayor Jim Boult, a Lake Hayes resident and club patron for 34 years, is hoping the fundraiser, including auction, draws a large crowd. He’s seen the club grow hugely to the stage it was Rowing New Zealand’s club of the year last year.
"This is about young people getting into a really good sport which teaches them good values."
He notes the gym will also be available for the public to use, for a fee.
Boult adds the club’s happy to share its new facility — scheduled to open in March — with the community, "especially other watersports and environmental groups working to protect and enhance the ecology of Lake Hayes".
