Things are looking up for the Pleasant Point Scout Group after several community groups chipped in to fund a new roof for their den.
The den, located in Te Ngawai Rd, started life in 1877 as a small department store, offering, among other wares, groceries and drapery goods.
It was then bought by the Pleasant Point Pipe Band in 1953 before eventually being given to the scout group.
Pleasant Point Scout Group chairman and cubs leader Hamish Holland said the reroofing project began two years ago.
‘‘We were doing a spring clean and in that process we were in the upstairs part of the building, pulling bits and pieces out, and we looked up at the roof and thought ‘that doesn’t look great’.
‘‘There were a couple of rotten purlins, so we traced back and figured out that water was getting in. We got it looked at by a couple of different firms and both of them came back and said it needed to be replaced.
‘‘We sat down as a committee to figure out how we were going to make things work because it was a reasonable sum of money and we’re only a wee volunteer group.’’
After reaching out to the community for help, one of the groups that came forward to lend a hand was the Pleasant Point Lions Club, who funded $14,000 of the $20,000 needed to complete the project.
Past Pleasant Point Lions Club president Tom Lambie said it was great to have been able to lend a hand to the scout group.
‘‘The scouts are a fantastic group and with bigger projects like this it’s often really hard to get a reasonable amount of money relatively quickly.
‘‘There were two fundamental parts of this project for us. It was helping with the development of our young people in the district and helping to preserve a building that is quite iconic in the Pleasant Point area.
‘‘When I came and saw the building for the first time, I knew there was something special about it. I went and checked out the history of it and saw it was one of our first buildings here and I think, the third oldest building that is still here in Pleasant Point.’’
Mr Holland said the new roof was put up just before the end of last year and was now ‘‘looking like a million bucks’’.
He said he was very thankful to the Pleasant Point Lions Club, Trust Aoraki, Pleasant Point Foot Clinic and the Pleasant Point Market for helping to fund the project.
‘‘Thank you to all those that put funds in, particularly the Lions Club for doing the lion’s share of it.
‘‘Without that help it would have been a real struggle, it was going to take a long, long time to get anywhere. We are hugely grateful.’’
