Term 2

It has been a while since our last blog- sorry about that!! We have been preparing for a busy term- we will be visiting 6 schools which is amazing.When not working or preparing resources I have been very busy with a new member of our family...

So what else have we all been doing....

Youth Board- these amazing young people meet once a month for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately we had to postpone their first event which was Together in the Park, it has been rescheduled for Term 3 holiday.

Howick Pest Free organise a competition each year to raise awareness of the moth pod plant. This year a group from the Youth Board have taken part, collecting pods and small vines to help our local environment. 5 students and myself have been busy collecting pods and vines, having fun and helping our community reduce the amount of vines. The competition has now ended and we are looking forward to hearing how many pods and vines were collected by all the groups.

Just one of the collections made

Four members of the Youth Board came to Bruce McLaren Retirement Village to help residents with any technology issues. This is a regular event, every two months a different group of students come and help. Both parties seem to get a lot out of these sessions, the conversations are just as valuable as the tech help. We are never short of volunteers for these sessions, it has proved very popular!

There have also been a couple of Youth Board meetings. At the last meeting Bo Burns our Ambassador visited the group. The youth were very grateful to Bo for giving up her time to join a meeting. They had a chance to ask her questions and let her see what they are planning for the rest of the year.

This was part of a video they made to advertise an event

Their next event is a Youth Volunteering Awards Night. This year is International Volunteering Year so it seemed the perfect time to celebrate all the good that young people do in our community. We are still looking for more nominations , so if you know a young person who gives up their time to help others or the environment - nominate them for an award. The winners will receive an award to keep and $50 prize money- thanks to all the wonderful sponsors- Ambridge Rose Group, Kip McGrath Tutoring Pakuranga, Hara Jeng Ray White, East Auckland Freemasons and Melanie Kennerly.

The Awards night is been supported by Howick Local Board so a big thank you to them.

Youth Volunteers

Lovely Alina who is an intermediate student volunteered her time to make puzzles for preschoolers- thank you Alina.

Alina is also a youth reporter for the Eastern Times and interviewed me for an article about the Youth Board- we are looking forward to reading the finished article.

We have had lots of enquiries about youth volunteering, unfortunately we are only able to support young people from East Auckland at the moment as we are only a small team.

We know how hard it is to find volunteering placements for young people especially under 16years old. We decided to run our weekly volunteering sessions again this year, so once a week we have 21 youth volunteers meet us to complete activities to help their community. This session has proved very popular with students taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

This week the volunteers made puzzles for preschoolers, these were given to Dannemora Kindergarten.

Kindness in the Community Activities

We have visited Sunnyhills School and are currently working with students at Pigeon Mountain Primary School. Working in the schools is so much fun, talking to the young students about kindness and seeing how hard they work on a gift for someone they don't know.

Kindness Bugs made by Year 2 students- these will be placed around the community for people to find, encouraging them to do an act of kindness.

Kindness keyrings- these were delivered to neighbours of the school to brighten their day

Community Hero Hearts

Each heart has a different message inside written by the students

It is so wonderful to deliver all these gifts to people in the community, it really makes their day. It shows you that a small act of kindness can change someone's day- it really does make a difference.

These Community Hero hearts have been given to local firefights, St.Johns paramedics and staff at Howick New World.

The staff were a little camera shy, so they placed them on the ambulance- even putting the lights on!I can say the lovely paramedics had big smiles on their faces after receiving the hearts.

Howick New World staff- this supermarket is so supportive of the community.

Thank you to the Ambridge Rose Group for sponsoring our Kindness in the Community Activities this term- we are so grateful. Your support means that we can continue to offer these activities to local Primary Schools completely free of charge.

So hopefully now you can understand why it has taken me so long to write another blog. We love being busy and love what we do. I would like to say a big thank you to our wonderful volunteers who help me to provide all of the above- Claire, Vivian and Fields- you are awesome!

Thank you also to our wonderful Board of Trustees- especially Ann who also helps in the schools.

This term is incredibly busy and I couldn't do it alone, so thank you.