This community newsletter is compiled every month or so on behalf of tawalink.com, Tawa's community website since 2002.

SPRING INTO TAWA MARKET DAY
More than 30 stalls have now been booked for this year's "Spring into Tawa Market Day" on Saturday 11 September at the Main Road shops. If you're wanting a stall for your club or group, you'd better get in fast! Full details are available at www.tawalink.com/springintotawa2010.html

In addition to the usual cakes, sausages, cards and various gifts on sale, "... there will be a variety of entertainers including Harry the Clown tying balloon animals, a visit from Harold the giraffe, Tawa Music Festival singers providing a few sample items, and the Red Hackle Pipe Band marching along the Main Road as they do each year. And once again the festivities are all pulled together by students from the NZ Radio Training School."
So make sure you get on down there on the day! .

TAWA SCHOOLS' & COMMUNITY FESTIVAL - TICKETS NOW ON SALE!
'Tawa Goes to Town' is again the theme for this year's Tawa Schools' and Community Music Festival which takes place in the Michael Fowler Centre on Thursday 16 September at 7.30pm. This vibrant multi-media show will feature 700 singers from Tawa's six primary schools, Tawa Intermediate, and Tawa College's Dawn Chorus, as well as an adult choir from the Tawa community and beyond.

The programme features a variety of songs, and includes arrangements of classics like 'Fly Me to the Moon', 'Let Me be There', 'The Climb', 'Somebody to Love' and a medley of Michael Jackson favourites like 'Gone Too Soon', 'Man in the Mirror', and 'Earth Song'.

Some songs are choral numbers, while others are accompanied by dances, choralography, props and special effects. There will be solo, group and instrumental interludes between brackets of songs.

Don't miss this showcase of song, dance, lighting, sound, involving a community coming together to form a spectatular evening's entertainment. An $80 show for only $28 a ticket for adults and $15 for children under 14. Tickets are now available from Ticketek at this address - http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=TAWASCHO10

SUNDAY ROAST AT TAWA'S COMMUNITY CLUB .
Tawa residents and their friends/families (including children) are invited to Tawa's Community Club, aka the RSA, at 89 Oxford Street for Sunday Roast Lunch on 5 September 2010. Club rooms open at noon, with roast lunch served from 1pm. $12.00 per head. Our bar prices are very competitive ($3.20 for a glass of wine). If you'd like to come to the Sunday lunch please ring 232 5788 and advise how numbers. Leave a message if the phone is not answered.

We also offer a cooked meal at 6pm every Friday. No advance booking necessary.

LOCAL BODY ELECTION
The next local body election - which includes electing members to the Tawa Community Board - takes place late September/early October. It's a postal vote over a 3-week period concluding on Saturday 9 October. If you value having a community board in Tawa - and there's no doubt we would be poorer without the board - please exercise your democratic right and VOTE!

P.S. You could cast your vote for Mayor and Northern Ward councillors, etc at the same time.

HAVE YOU SEEN GINGER?
Ginger is a 10-month-old timid cat who has bad eyesight. She has been missing from 33 Sunrise Boulevard since Friday 30 July. She is tortoiseshell and white, fluffy and very cute. Her owners think she has wandered from home and can't find her way back. She tends to hide when she's scared. She is a much loved part of a family who dearly want to find her.

If you have seen Ginger, please phone Rob or Jenny on 232 2508 or 027 438 6388 or 027 438 6303. Reward offered.

COMMUNITY VEGETABLE GARDENS
The idea of establishing community vegetable gardens in Tawa has been suggested. It's possible there is something along these lines already under way. If this concept is of interest to you - as part of further improving the quality of life in Tawa by making free healthy vegetables available locally - please contact Andrew on andrew_mcl@hotmail.com. Of course there may be some physical effort required in order to gain the 'free lunch'.

MASSIVE BOOK FAIR
The 'Massive Book Fair' which is held by the Rotary Club of Tawa every year took place on the last two Saturdays of July. Thousands of books were on sale, and many man-hours went into ensuring the success of the venture, capably led by Doug Burrus. Net proceeds exceeded $16,000, much of which will be directed to the Life Education Trust.

TAWA LIONS CHRISTMAS PARADE
Like it or not, those whose job is to plan ahead are already thinking about this year's Tawa Lions Christmas Parade. All kinds of groups are invited to be part of the parade which takes place at 2pm on Saturday 4 December. That's just over fifteen weeks away. It would be great to have even more participants than usual involved in this - sports teams wearing team colours, clubs/groups in uniform, ethnic groups in national costume, etc. Now's the time to start thinking it through and getting organised! Contact Ken Coad on 232 2475 or Mike Baker on 232 6406.

ROSIE'S WHEELATHON SUCCESS
On 31 July Rosie Macleod completed a 9km 'wheelathon' to raise funds for her activities as a disabled sportsperson. Rosie, 54, has lived in Tawa for 27 years. She is an enthusiastic sportswoman, having already represented New Zealand as a member of the Women's Wheelchair Basketball team, currently plays wheelchair tennis at the Tawa Lyndhurst Tennis Club and intends taking up air rifle shooting with a view towards participation at an international level.

Rosie completed the wheelathon in a time of 1 hour 45 minutes in an unmodified chair on a circuit in Te Horo near Otaki. See the full report at www.tawalink.com/pic_week_2010-22.html.

JUNIOR TENNIS REGISTRATION
Sunday 29 August 10am to 12 noon at the Tawa Lyndhurst Tennis Club (by Redwood Station).

- Meet the Club Coaches
- Bring along your racquet and join in the fun
- Registration for Junior Club Night
- Interclub and coaching registration
- Coaching programmes available at all levels during Terms 1 and 4.

Junior Club Nights start on Friday 15 October
Year 1 - 3:  3.30 - 4.30pm
Year 4 - Year 6:  4.30 - 6pm
Year 7 - Year 13:  6.30 - 8pm
Junior Convenor: Julie Roberts  232 9301  sjroberts@xtra.co.nz



Adios


Malcolm Sparrow
On behalf of TawaLink.com
info@tawalink.com
http://www.tawalink.com
232 5030 A/H or 027 232 2320


"If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."

"Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours." - Yogi Berra

"You can't keep people from having bad opinions about you, but you can keep them from being true."



This page is emailed as a community newsletter to more than 900 Tawa households, businesses, schools, churches and clubs/groups (anyone who has an interest in the community of Tawa) every month or so. If there's anything you'd like to include in the next newsletter, please let us know. If you do not already receive the newsletter by email and would like to do so, please contact us at info@tawalink.com requesting that your name be added to our list.

These shots were taken in early August by a Tawa resident. They have no relevance whatsoever to Tawa. They simply typify the picturesque scenery in our own back yard (so to speak).