The year with much achieved- 2024
The Geraldine Sculpture Trail became an award-winning trail this year when it was awarded The Golden Foot Walking Award. It was humbling to be recognised on the national stage for encouraging people to get out and walk. We see daily use of the trails and trust the community and visitors enjoy the experience while also nurturing their well-being.
This year has been about construction, fundraising, collaborating with various stakeholders, and building relationships. 2025 will focus more on the art and sculptures as we need to get the foundations in place before we begin to place sculptures on the trails.
The Rhododendron Trail and viewing platform were constructed, thank you to Ezi Fencing, Ricks Rock Walls, Sullivan Contracting, and King Construction for your input and support in making this happen.
The Domain Trail was constructed while the upgrade to the Wilson St footpath over the Village Inn entrance to the carpark was also completed in collaboration with Timaru District Council (TDC). Thank you to everyone involved, particularly the TDC team.
Signage was placed on two trails with metal caps recently added to extend the life of the signs. Thank you to Glasson Huxtable, Signtech, Marsden Engineering, and the Temuka Geraldine Rotary Club.
We met students from Geraldine High School on two occasions, planting bulbs on the Memorial Walkway in April and spreading mulch around the bulbs in November. A huge help and thank you to the students and hope they feel very proud of their mahi.
We met the fabulous CWI Rangitata chapter earlier in the year to discuss their remembrance tree, great ladies, it was a pleasure to meet you all.
We completed Stage 1 of our website development, geraldinesculpturetrail.nz . Thank you to the team at Artikel & Swint in Timaru.
When I reflect on what the team has achieved, I feel immensely proud to know we are making a difference in this town by establishing an award-winning trail with the prospect of becoming a destination for folk to enjoy & become educated on sculpture and their installations.
I am in discussions with four artists currently and the plan is to start placing sculptures on the trail starting February 2025.
I’d like to take this time to wish you the happiest of New Years and trust that your Christmas is a memorable one.
All the best for 2025, as always,
Rosie.
