Mary Jobberns of the Marlborough TC tells us how they did it.

It started with an email from Dan Clearwater and then a few weeks later a follow up email urging Tramping Clubs to host the NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival. As a number of Marlborough members travel over to Nelson when BANFF is on we decided that our club would host the NZMFF here in Blenheim.

With this being the first time we have hosted this event it was decided to keep it low key and simple and use the experience for next time. The delay at the start was pretty stressful but apart from the odd person no one seemed to mind spending half an hour chatting.

I’m still not certain why the computer and screens wouldn’t ”Talk” to each other at the start because they had worked perfectly when Steven and the Elim Tech guy, Doug, had a trial run. Ah! well, that’s technology.

We had a 500 photo slide show of club trips to show and Helen had gone to a lot of effort to put a photo display and a stand promoting the club but with the foyer being jam packed these weren’t able to be viewed to their best advantage.

Apart from the cost of the films the only expense we had was $55 for printing the colour posters the committee put up all over the district.

Finding a suitable venue wasn’t easy. Either too big, too small and a lot were just far too expensive. The Elim Centre generously allowed us to use their auditorium at no cost as the proceeds were for the Nelson-Marlborough Rescue Helicopter. Paula, the Helicopter center manager, came over from Nelson and gave a short talk on the service they provide.  Our cheque for $2000 was really appreciated as was the opportunity speak to the community who they are there for!

Marlborough Tramping Club president Mary Jobberns presents Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter volunteer Chris McConway with a $2000 donation raised from a recent tramping club film evening. Photo courtesy of the Blenhiem Sun

Was it successful? Yes.

Did we learn from it? Yes.

Would we do it again? Hell – Yes!

Check out our Outdoor Community resource for how to host a successful screening of the Festival. If your club would like to host a screening of the NZ Mountain Film Festival National Tour, you can contact info@mountainfilm.nz