Once a year, Nawton’s Elliot Park comes alive with face-painted children, food stalls, inflatable rides, competitions, and a skate competition.
The event – Treats in the Park – is all made possible through the support of Hamilton City Council, says Western Community Centre’s Neil Tolan.
Mr Tolan, the long-serving manager at Western Community Centre, says the annual Halloween-themed event would be a struggle to finance without a grant from the Council’s Community Event Fund.
“Without the Council Grant the event would be financially difficult for us to facilitate and also to continue to keep it affordable for our families to attend,” Mr Tolan says. “As the event has grown our costs to run it have increased.”
Treats in the Park is held every October, and was first held in 1998. Mr Tolan says it initially emerged from a meeting of community leaders who were concerned about the safety and well-being of children out Halloween “trick or treating” in the area.
“Since then 17 Treats in the Park events have been held with the aim to bring our Hamilton west residents together to strengthen community networks and to build community pride.”
As part of the 2018 Community Event Fund grants round, the Western Community Centre received $5000 from the Council – funding that was used to cover the costs of hired equipment and the inflatable rides which prove hugely popular with the children who attend.
Last year’s Treats in the Park drew 5000 people, and the event has an inter-generational feel: Mr Tolan says people who were kids attending the early Treats in the Park are now returning with their own children for a fun and community focussed night.
“It’s become a family tradition for many people,” he says.
“More than 250 people volunteer to make the event happen. Treats in the Park has become part of our Hamilton west culture and our community gets behind us every year to make it happen.”
Mr Tolan says event organisers are appreciative of the grant made by the Council: “we see the positive benefits the funding achieves at a grassroots community level.”
The application period for the 2019 Community Event Fund grants runs from 1 July to 30 July. For more information, visit www.hamilton.govt.nz/communityfunding