Officially blessed by Henry Hamilton, the project, supported by Sport Northland’s Kaipara Community Connector Roxanne Kelly has been in the planning stage since March this year. Through a Kaipara District Council community consultation process, a fitness trail was identified as something that the community wanted and after an approach to the Dargaville Lions Club they were keen to lead the concept as their centennial project. Brian Nesbit President of Dargaville Lions says “by working with other groups and using the skills of members such as Mitch King, a builder, we were able to make this project a reality. Sport Northland was a real catalyst for connecting the different groups and keeping us on track”.

Sport Northland and Kaipara District Council were keen to support this initiative as It shows real community collaboration and as it was a community idea it is great to be able to connect all the pieces to make it happen.

The first stage of the project is mainly funded by an endowment the Lions received from the David Saies estate. Dargaville Lions Club will seek funding for the second stage.

The idea for the trail is to have three separate sites around the park. Site one will have two stations with situps, monkey bars and chin ups, site two will have a abseiling/jumping wall, parallel bars and balance beams and site three the second stage will have outdoor gym equipment.

Work will begin on site one when the ground is suitable to work on.