Summer in the Park a success for Colab

Yasmine Wilburn, 7, left, and Brianna West enjoy a game of snakes and ladders.

Summer has been full of days that have been far from lazy for Te Puke youngsters.

A series of events in Jubilee Park has featured a range of activities from cricket to American football, outdoor games to association football. And, each day, there has been food.

The Summer in the Park series was facilitated by Te Puke’s multi-organisation body Colab.

Beks West, operations support, says the events have attracted an average of between 80 and 100 people - with the second event on January 12 the busiest.

It is the second summer for the school holiday series. Those who have attended have included Northern Districts Cricket, Arataki Thunder American Football Club, Te Puke Utd Football Club, Parafed, Sport Bay of Plenty, Youth Encounter and Live for More.

“We’ve had amazing feedback from everyone, the parents and the organisations - positive feedback all round,” she says.

Lukah Pamment gets the hang of the stilts at Te Puke's Summer in the Park.

Food was provided by Ngā Kākano Foundation, Poutiri Trust, The Daily Charitable Trust, Rapid Relief, the local Sikh community and the Western Bay of Plenty District Council. Others to attend were the district council library service and Mainly Music.

Beks says Colab acted as a facilitator.

“The idea was the other organisations come in and run the actual day where we are facilitating and co-ordinating the whole series of events.”

There was an added benefit of making connections with other groups and organisations and letting people know about Colab, she says.

Beks thinks the series will get better and bigger each year and would like to see more sports clubs involved.

“I’d also like to get a lot more kids down there and we need to figure out how to get the older kids along, to find out what they want and what’s going to encourage them.”