Response not only restores but enhances Music and Greer Halls
Brenton Stacey
Public relations officer
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
The response to an offering collected in Seventh-day Adventist churches last year has enabled Avondale to not only restore but enhance two historic buildings.
Music Hall’s facelift comes from a larger than usual offering given by Seventh-day Adventist Church members in the South Pacific.
Credit: Jaidan Humphries.
The biannual Avondale College of Higher Education Offering raised $144,000, which is giving Music and Greer Halls on the Lake Macquarie campus a much needed facelift.
The response reflects the profile the music program gives to Avondale, says vice-president (finance) Paul Hattingh. He is referring to events such as the Avondale Concert Series, which includes the meditative and reflective music program, Evensong, and to last year’s Homecoming concert, Music for Royal Occasions, which filled Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church. “It has enabled us to do more than just the basics.”
These basics have included: repainting exteriors and interiors; replacing broken windows, guttering and rotten timber beams; repointing mortar between bricks; and re-plastering ceilings. However, the response has also enabled Avondale to: improve drainage; increase storage; install air conditioning in every classroom, office and rehearsal room; install swipe card access to each rehearsal room; and re-polish floorboards. “Two old buildings look good again,” says property manager Bruce Cantrill. “I like to fix things up.”
Music strand coordinator Aleta King says the restoration and enhancement is giving students a stronger sense of ownership of and pride in their space. “It says something about the value we place in them, and they respond accordingly.”
It also says something about those who have supported the offering. “You choose to give more than you normally would,” says president Professor Ray Roennfeldt. “Your generosity is now improving the Avondale experience for our music students. They thank you, and I thank you.”
All work on Music and Greer Halls, including landscaping and re-coating roofs, should be completed by the end of July.