The return this year of the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival promises to be a highlight for the 2024-25 tenure of the club’s new president, Gary Smith.
Cambridge Rotary Club members Phill Shakesby and Bev Maul-Rogers, left, with some of those who attended last week’s garden festival launch at Amber Garden Centre. Photo by Bruce Hancock
The November 10 festival was launched last week at an event at Amber Garden Centre, attended by some of the exhibition garden owners, artists and festival sponsors. This year’s launch included a tour around the centre’s behind-the-scenes working areas.
Smith said the festival has been the club’s biggest fundraiser since it started in 2019, bringing many thousands of dollars into the local community and becoming a much sought-after event around the region.
The festival was last held in 2022. The 11 gardens featuring this year are mostly new to fans. Only two have featured before, and one other garden was in the inaugural festival.
“There is a real mix – gardens big and small, some quite unusual. There is something for everyone,” Smith said.
The recipient charities for the festival will be Kids in Need Waikato, Interlock NZ Trust, and Cambridge Lifeskills.
Carey Church launches the Rotary Cambridge Garden Festival at a sponsors and gardeners event two years ago. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Incorporated into the festival is a Passion for Art Trail, which will showcase 11 artists and two galleries.
While the garden festival will be a main event for Smith’s year as Cambridge Rotary Club president, he plans to keep building on other existing Rotary activities which are gaining in momentum, particularly Urban Miners and the annual Bookarama.
His own association with Rotary started in the 1990s when he was living and working in Whanganui. A career in the police force saw him rise to the top there, then move to Rotorua and finally to Cambridge in 2022 to be closer to family. He is now retired, but one of the first things he did on coming here, was to join Rotary.
“It is a well-established club with strong membership,” he said. “I’d like to focus on building that membership further during my year in office. Rotary is a great place to meet like-minded people. It provides a ton of opportunities to get involved in all sorts of projects, hear good speakers and give something back to the community.”
He said Rotary’s international network also enabled those interested to support some of the organisation’s offshore projects.
Cambridge Rotary Club president Gary Smith, left, at last week’s garden festival launch with, from left, Rotary’s Phill Shakesby, Amber Garden Centre’s Rob Clancy, and Rotary’s Bev Maul-Rogers. Photo by Bruce Hancock
