New home for plaque 

Cambridge Rotary’s Bronwyn Byers, left, and Waipā District Council staffer Asa Perrson next to the restored plaque. 

Cambridge Rotary’s Bronwyn Byers, left, and Waipā District Council staffer Asa Perrson next to the restored plaque. 

A plaque that once carried the hopes of people who threw coins into a wishing well in Cambridge has been restored and given a new home.

The plaque, which carries the engraved message ‘A coin or two, a wish from you needs but faith to bring it true’, was recently fixed to a large rock in the children’s playground in Thornton Rd.

It marked a new lease on life for the plaque, which in 1959/60 had been purchased and attached by the Rotary Club of Cambridge to the town’s wishing well.  Many years later, when the Waipā District Council deconstructed the well to make way for a playground upgrade, the plaque was removed and placed into council offices for safekeeping.

Bronwyn Byers, who heads the Cambridge Rotary Club’s international committee, worked together with council staffer Asa Perrson to bring the plaque out of storage and give it a new home.  It was attached to the rock at the playground several weeks ago.

“Between us, we wanted to find another way the plaque could be seen once again,” Bronwyn said, “and without Asa’s help, it wouldn’t have happened.  The Rotary club is very grateful to her.”

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