Plans to honour resident
A SERVICE will be held at Gibbston today to honour the life of a Queenstown resident who died in a parapenting incident last weekend.
Ben Letham (26), originally from Scotland, died on Saturday after appearing to lose control during a solo recreational flight, crashing on to the roof of a building at
Queenstown
Primary
School.
A Facebook page set up in
Mr Letham’s memory said a short service to ‘‘honour
Ben’s life and how he lived it
— to the fullest’’ would be held at 106 Coalpit Rd, Gibbston from 11.30am today, followed by a short service at the Central Crematorium in Alexandra at 2.30pm after which people were invited to Smith’s Craft Beer House in Queenstown to ‘‘share stories and raise our glasses to Ben’’, from 6pm.
Guests were asked to wear bright colours and ‘‘no black’’.
‘‘We will also be scattering some of his ashes back to the wind he so loved from The Basket of Dreams up Queenstown Hill on Monday [May 1].
‘‘We are also scattering some of his ashes back to the water Ben loved so much at Westport beach, west coast of Scotland, where he was born and raised.
‘‘Please join us for any or all of these gatherings, all those whose lives were touched by Ben are welcome,’’ the page said.
A crowd funding page set up to help the family give ‘‘our legend the send off he deserves’’ had raised £11,150 — almost NZ$20,770 — by yesterday afternoon.
Any money left over after covering the costs incurred would go towards a permanent memorial ‘‘in the place he loved the most’’.
tracey.roxburgh@odt.co.nz