Hawke's Bay students organise Anzac commemoration for 1500 people

Tamatea High School head boy and committee chairman Jack Winiana and committee member Harry Berryman finalising plans for an Anzac commemoration in Taradale on Friday. Photo / Warren Buckland

A group of Hawke's Bay students are running a student-led Anzac commemoration in a bid to show fellow NZ teens the importance of commemorating the country's wartime history.

A committee of students from Taradale and Tamatea high schools, led by chairman Jack Winiana, have organised this year's Taradale District School's Spirit of Anzac Commemoration to be held at the Taradale Clock Tower on Friday morning.

About 1500 students from 14 schools in the Taradale and Tamatea area, veterans and members of the public are expected to attend.

With the guidance of a few veterans, the students have organised the entire commemoration, meeting every Wednesday since February 24 to plan the ceremony.

Students will also be doing everything on the day from Ode reading, giving poems and speeches to sounding The Last Post and reveille.

Committee member and Taradale High School student Harry Berryman and schoolmate Nicole McLaren are both members of the No 13 Squadron Air Cadet Unit so wanted to be part of organising this year's event.

The student-led event has been run for the past six years or so, and Berryman said being part of the group has been great.

"For me, us students doing it ourselves, we are trying to show other students that it's important to honour the people that have gone before because we wouldn't have the freedom that we have today without [the Anzac soldiers'] sacrifice that they made for us.

"It's about showing students that it is important to commemorate the fallen and what they've done for us, so by doing it by the youth we are showing them how important it actually is.

"It is about remembrance, legacy and the strengthening of communities through an understanding of the values of the spirit of Anzac."

They hope that the success of their commemoration will inspire more student-led commemorations around the region and country.

The commemoration will be held at the Taradale Clock Tower from 11am–12pm. The community is welcome to attend.