Golden Bay’s sporting honours board gets a welcome extension and update
Bob Rohland (ITM branch manager), Cheryl Elsey (Feel Good Food) and Barry Cashman stand beside the updated sporting honours board. Photo: Neil Wilson.
The Golden Bay sporting honours board has had another update.
The board, on the wall at the end of Feel Good Food’s dining room, records the sporting feats of Golden Bay people who represent New Zealand. The latest names to be added are Sean Riordan for golf, Wyatt Crockett for rugby and Tineka Scott for dragonboat racing.
“The idea dates back over 20 years,” said Barry Cashman, who takes responsibility for organising the updates. “Toni Hodgkinson was getting very close to being selected for the Commonwealth Games team and a group of us formed a trust to help raise funds for her travel. We decided to start a permanent record of the Golden Bay people who had been national representatives, and it’s been going ever since. It’s an impressive list of achievement for a small place like Golden Bay.”
Cheryl Elsey from Feel Good Food says that the honours board attracts interest and curiosity almost every day.
“We get a lot of positive feedback about it. Someone will notice it while they’re ordering their coffee and go down and have a look. It’s a real conversation piece. People often say things like ‘Wow! I didn’t know Todd Blackadder or Wyatt Crockett were from round here.’ Good on Barry and ITM for keeping it updated.”
Some errors and omissions have been acknowledged and are to be corrected.
Bob Rohland, the branch manager of ITM, which provides the raw materials for the board updates, said that the company was only too happy to be part of this form of worthy recognition of community achievement.
“We like to put something back into the community,” said Bob.
Neil Wilson
