What is Edgecumbe like today?

Edgecumbe is still a small town. There are not many shops in Edgecumbe but some new shops are starting to open, especially in the Riverslea Mall. Actually, Whaea Lesa had a brief conversation with Mr Grindley (owner of the Riverslea Mall) and he mentioned that once there were only around 20% of shops open inside Riverslea Mall but today (2013), the mall has seen more shops open and some are opening in the new year! Mr Grindley says, that's about 80% of shop-space used! Mr Grindley has worked hard to promote local businesses and is one of our Community icons!

Cool things have started to happen around Edgecumbe in the last few years because of a lot of people who make Edgecumbe a lovely place by working to improve Edgecumbe. Edgecumbe also has a lot of 'Local Heroes' that help the Edgecumbe community in different ways.

We found out:

*A new skate park was opened in February 2012! A lot of people worked hard to 'get' a skatepark and it took a little whilte but they finally opened the skatepark to the public in 2012. It looks pretty amazing and anyone can use it.

*In 2012, an artist called Marc Spijerbosch began a long, long underwater mural showing eels and a taniwha's body (no head yet!) on a riverbank wall. He was helped by mums, dads, aunties and uncles - all from the community and they are families of our Room 7 children. Because Mr Spijerbosch had so much good help, the mural did not take long to be finished (well actually, it has an unfinished Taniwha!)

*A group known as E.D.I.T. from the local community, has been thinking of wonderful ways to help 'improve ' and 'revitalize' Edgecumbe.

Here are some of the projects

E.D.I.T have done so far...

*Developed the Rangitaiki River Walkway along the river bank in 2012, starting from the Cosmopolitan Club and going all the way to the Edgecumbe Sports Club.

*Installed a new information area next to the Z shop in town known as the 'i-Site'.

*Made a concrete footpath and installed new metal safety bars by the mural

*Organized 'community working 'bees' to help clean up areas around Edgecumbe. They have cleaned gardens outside Riverslea Mall (which was one of the biggest undercover rural shopping centres before the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake!).

Another big job E.D.I.T and community volunteers have done is the cleaning of the roadside banks as you drive into Edgecumbe township.They have also planted small trees alongside the banks.

*Installed the Eastpack sign on the town side of the riverbank and are always thinking of new projects to help improve Edgecumbe.

The E.D.I.T group and volunteers from all over Edgecumbe have worked hard to help improve Edgecumbe and make it look nicer. Our children who have helped with some of the community bees or projects around Edgecumbe say they enjoyed helping to make their town a nicer place and remember all the hard work they did - a sense of pride!

Interesting things found in Edgecumbe...

A really interesting thing we found out about is one of the old murals hiding behind a garden and trees next to our local tavern. Tye's Mum was one of the artists that helped paint that mural when she went to College!

This stone has the 10 Commandments carved onto the front. A mum told us that the reason why we have the 10 Commandments on the stone is so the young people in Edgecumbe can remember some important lessons about how to behave.

Another interesting thing that can be found in Edgecumbe is our very own Go Kart club called Kartzone!