An All Blacks captain, mountaineer, double amputee and others gave young people from across the region a boost in confidence and aspirations in Rotorua yesterday.
The Parenting Place brought its National Young Leaders' Day event to the Energy Events Centre and more than 1750 children from across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
The event has been running since 2001. It is visiting six centres this term and features a mix of speakers and interactive activities aimed at children in Years 6 to 8 from primary and intermediate schools.
"A lot of leadership programmes start at university level but we want to get through to the younger age groups," said Jayson Kingsbeer, digital marketing manager for The Parenting Place.
"They can start leading now. We've had so much great feedback ... they go back to school and start up programmes around litter and bullying. They go back empowered."