Darel Hall’s homecoming


Hundreds aged five to 12 visit Canterbury’s Cholmondeley Children’s Centre each year, a place of respite care for families and their children. A young Darel Hall was one of them. Late last year, the roles reversed when Darel returned as general manager, writes Metropol Deputy Editor Nina Tucker.

Darel Hall valued every moment of his time at Cholmondeley – from the guidance to the sweeping landscapes he would explore at the Governors Bay address. At that age, each experience and field trip was a new one. Now, Darel enters with a fresh outlook. “I’ve had those experiences. So I come with a mission. My job is to help these children, who I was once one of.”

Darel lists the adults, once Cholmondeley children, who continue to live in honour and charity of the centre. It solidifies just how strong this community is: a family for life. René Heyde, former Commonwealth Games cycling medallist and Cholmondeley alum, spent a large chunk of 2024 biking 4000 kilometres across Australia to fundraise. Former Member of New Zealand Parliament Nuk Korako spent months of his childhood at the centre, and the now-Patron was cycling from Cape Reinga to Wellington with Cholmondeley chair Nettles Lamont when Darel and I met. “The commitment is amazing,” Darel smiles. “Society gets a lot out of giving.” We talk about how kindness is free – Darel says all it costs is effort and risk. When he left his post at the Mayor’s Office at Christchurch City Council in 2024 to become Cholmondeley’s general manager, Darel’s colleagues did a whip-round, producing a generous sum. Instead of a leaving gift, Darel asked if it could be a koha to Cholmondeley, an 80% privately-funded charity. Subconsciously, every act of his comes with a signature touch of kindness. “Like breeds like,” he surmises. However it happened, he laughed it was a great start to the role.

As Darel showed me photos of his two beautiful daughters baking goodies for the children, it became evident that one thing is closer to his heart than Cholmondeley: family. He would leave the interview to pick up the pair and enjoy an afternoon at the centre. On weekends, he starts with training – martial arts, a passion of Darel’s since University of Canterbury days – before “the girls insist on sushi for lunch.” He will shop with them, walk with them along the beach, and entertain travels to places they dream of visiting. ‘Dad duties’ seems to be something he’s nailed.

At work, Darel reminds the children of the opportunities within Cholmondeley that can present themselves later on in life, just as the path he walked. “In 10 years time, it’s going to be your time,” he says. With so much power in widening the range of choice, Darel hopes the children’s minds will open to new possibilities of who they can be. As he grew up, choice meant chance – that was thanks to Cholmondeley. He cites a strategy with an intervention logic that maximises choice and outcomes, with success in the multiple roles he’s worked. “When you get exposed to new experiences, your ability to envisage what you can do expands.”

With time, Darel pushed his horizons, soon finding himself in senior management positions across the industry training, advisory, and consulting fields, and within Otago and Canterbury’s respective university students’ associations. Then, it was a five-year stint as an advisor to the Mayor, an evidently successful role with how many smiles Darel’s presence invited as we chatted at the Council’s Civil Servant cafe. When then general manager Toni Tinirau farewelled Cholmondeley, Darel was the obvious choice. For him, it was a homecoming. “Some of your earliest experiences can shape you profoundly.” In that span, he had spent five years on the Cholmondeley board, as if an invisible string kept him close.

Despite his title, Darel sees himself in the background, highlighting the merit within the rest of his team – including those from overseas. New accents, cultures, and thus experiences – it opens the door for more choice. Darel’s putting in place plans to expand this through Christchurch’s sister cities, to show children they can explore more, and thanks to his previous connections, Darel’s first point of call was the Mayor’s office.

His working days consist of the fundamentals: the operating plan, the budget, the strategic plan, the policies. Between scouring health and safety documents and managing finances, Darel reserves time to get outside and normalise himself for the children. “I make the effort.” He finds value in being a familiar face. “Part of [the children] having a stable, secure, caring experience is to know, ‘Who are all these adults?’” he explains.

Structure and stability echo through our conversation, and Darel is committed to providing that. For some, structure and stability mean a lack of innovation. “In my experience, structure and stability allows you to innovate, because you have your base squared away.” Putting those processes in place and refining them early on is just one of his secrets to success.

Darel, with incredible people skills and zest for the mission, loves to engage with the community, donors or not. Giving time over and above the hours put in weekly, it’s a mindset he’s had in work all his life. Find him at a charity gala or shaking a bucket outside your local supermarket – he never needed to be convinced of this mission, and is it for the long haul. “One of the brilliant parts of my job is that I get to see kindness every day.”

In its 100th year, Cholmondeley is in the safest hands. Knowledge, skill, and hard work got him so far – kindness the rest. That doesn’t mean it’s a ‘guiding principle’ for Darel. “It’s normal,” he says. “People are normally kind given a sliver of an opportunity.”

 


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