The huge amount of community work provided by individuals and organisations in the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton area has been applauded by City Council Community Development Advisor Marie Byrne.

Marie says she has done some number crunching in the past week. "I worked out that in 2018 the Community Board supported 59 community organisations to provide over 130 programmes to their local communities. These programmes comprised more than 200,000 volunteer hours contributed by over 4,500 volunteers and benefitting 135,000 participants.

 "That’s a huge amount of social capital being provided out there to make this corner of the world a better place. You are a key factor of these figures. So thank you for contributing to this.

"In a recent email to a hard-working member of the community I expressed the sentiments that one of the things that I enjoy about my job and feel fortunate to be able to do is to work alongside various communities at the grass roots level as I support and advise them on issues that matter to them.

"I consider that whether it's members of a grass-roots organisations, Council staff or elected members, we're all in this to ensure that the people living, working and playing in our communities are able to be heard, supported and involved in what matters to them. It's just that how we're able to support and enable that to happen can be different for a variety of reasons. That’s part of the rich tapestry of life –- we’re all different –- and that’s a good thing.

"Let's keep working together in 2019 to do what we can to make this part of our community a better place to live, work and play. I look forward to working with you, and please remember that I’m here to support you in your work – don’t hesitate to give me a call.

"I’ll finish with a quote from Mother Teresa: 'We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean will be less because of the missing drop.'

"I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you for all of the work you have done in our local community over 2018 and wish you and your whanau a happy and safe holiday break."