Christmas in the Park ready to go
Saturday’s Christmas in the Park is an event for the community in more ways that one.
Organiser Monique Lints says the event aims to bring the community together to a free event that celebrates Christmas.
“But we also have the aim of nobody going hungry at Christmas,” she says.
To hit that goal, anyone going along is asked to take cans of food or non-perishable food items and leave them in the Empowermentnz food bank trailer.
It is the second year Monique has been involved in organising the pre-christmas celebration.
Realising at the start of December last year that the traditional Christmas in the Park run by Te Puke Combined Churches wasn’t being organised, Monique and a group of friends rallied around to get an event off the ground just before Christmas.
This year they have followed a similar template.
“Last year it was all done at the last minute. This year the format was there, all the health and safety stuff was there.
One thing that has changed, though, is the date — last year the event was held on December 22 — this year it will be December 8 with a reschedule date of December 15 if the weather doesn’t come to the party.
“The feedback from last year was that it was too close to Christmas,” says Monique.
Singer Moone is set to open the show with about 10 groups to perform through the afternoon and evening.
There will be community and church groups, bands and singers including The Hype, Hines, Jack Kearney and The Shirleybyrds.
“There will be a couple of high school students performing and the Charitable Stage Company have donated their time running the stage, doing the set up and doing a dance performance.”
There will also be market stalls, food stalls, kids’ rides and, of course, an appearance by Santa.
Western Bay council have covered the cost of the traffic management plan and funding has also come from the council’s Matching Fund.
Te Puke Ministers Association have contributed and Triac have assisted with the lights and sound system. Any other contributions would be welcome. Email: tpchristmasinthepark@gmail. com.