What's in a name? Quite a lot it would seem, especially for Avenues Kindergarten. The kindergarten has had three names since the early 1960s.

The kindergarten on Botanical Rd has been Tauranga Kindergarten, Botanical Road Free Kindergarten and now Avenues Kindergarten.

Teacher Natalie Kennedy with some of the kindergarten's students.

Ange Taylor of Avenues Kindergarten says the original Tauranga Kindergarten, which opened in May, 1963, was one of the first kindergartens built in the city.

In the late 1950s and early-1960s, local women fundraised via cake stalls, picking and selling grapefruit, as well as hosting film premieres and restaurant nights to build the kindergarten, says Anne.

But Tauranga Kindergarten became Botanical Road Free Kindergarten on February 16, 1976.

Ange says the kindergarten's first name raised complaints. 'Tauranga Kindergarten caused much confusion with people still thinking there was still only one kindergarten in Tauranga.”

Now, Botanical Road Free Kindergarten has become Avenues Kindergarten.

'With the advent of electronic searching we have discovered that families do not know where Botanical Rd is and we have had several requests to change our name to the Avenues Kindergarten so they know what is available in their local area,” says Ange.

At a committee member's suggestion, the new name was presented to the rest of the kindergarten committee which 'thought it was a great idea”.

'We have had loads of positive feedback with people recognising the name change now represents our community,” says Ange.

'We understand it's a little bit sad changing the name as it signifies the end of another era for those who attended Botanical Road Kindergarten.

'I wonder if that's what people felt when our name changed originally. But as a kindergarten community we see this as an exciting new change, especially with all the fabulous upgrades in our building and outdoor environment happening at the moment.”

The building is 53 years old and staff have been fundraising for nearly five years to upgrade the Kindergarten.

'During the wet months last year, we found the front of our kindergarten needed an urgent renovation,” says Ange.

The area had become prone to flooding and the carparking area was significantly uninviting.

'We needed to rectify this as quickly as possible so had to use more than half of our funds raised to pay for this upgrade rather than keeping it to apply for a grant to upgrade our building.”

The kindergarten is having a blessing/karakia for the new front development on Thursday, June 2.