Burnside celebrates

THE wet weather did not dampen spirits at the Burnside Church 140th birthday celebration last month.
 
People came from as far as Wairoa for the special day and members of the Burnside Church committee were thrilled with the turnout.  About 70 people came to the community event – held at the Pirinoa Hall due to rain – from 12.30pm to 3pm on Sunday May 17.

Event organiser and church committee secretary Lisa Portas said the day exceeded all expectations and she was really pleased with the number of children and younger people who came. “We were expecting about 40 people but we were so pleased to get as many as we did,” she said. “I know we have a lot of support in the community but I had no idea the turn out would be so great. It reminds us how much the church history means to not just the locals, but for people living elsewhere too.”
 
Lisa said the local advertising efforts had paid off. There was a lot of effort put into reaching people in the area through different communication mediums. She said the church had been working on that strategy over the past couple of years and the committee were starting to see results.
 
“We had advertised throughout the district using the local newsletter and the Facebook page, as well as personal letters to specific people in the community who have contributed to the church over the years. We spent a lot of time thinking about how we could get people there,” she said.
 
Everyone enjoyed the sausage sizzle, salads and the bacon and egg pie for lunch at 1pm. First Church Reverend Jim Veitch said grace before committee member Tony Didsbury led the speeches at 1.30pm with a brief history of the church.

First Church member Anne Dodd congratulated the committee for all the achievements over the past few years. Anne Aburn of Pirinoa and John Sinclair of Wairoa – direct descendants of the original church trustees – cut the official celebration cake baked by committee member Gaye Didsbury. 
 
Tony Didsbury said it was “up there” with some of the biggest church community gatherings Pirinoa has had. He said the biggest gathering was in 2010 when over 100 people came to the church for a meeting about the possibility of the local landmark being moved.
 
“People from all through the district came. There were so many people they couldn’t have the meeting in the church. There would have been well over 100 (people) there,” he said.  “They (the locals) just didn’t want the iconic landmark moved. The church means a lot. People felt so strongly about it.”
 
Tony said the church had been revived since the committee was established in 2010 and there had been a lot of improvements made.“Putting the carpark in, that was a great thing to do because people no longer had to park on the road,” he said. “The other thing that really helped was advertising it as a wedding venue. That goes really well.”
 
Pirinoa local Susan Finlayson started the wedding venue hire and Lisa Portas had since carried it on. “It’s jolly good, he said. “It offers a whole new dynamic.”