Skydiving with Skydive Bay of Islands, in aid of Drop for Youth, a fundraiser for the Graeme Dingle Foundation. Photo / Supplied
Drop for Youth in the Far North
Northland people are being challenged to face their fears and tick skydiving off their bucket list, and it's for a cause.
It's the annual fundraising initiative by the Graeme Dingle Foundation Far North. Tracy Walker, regional manager for the foundation, says it already has nine people signed up, including Charmaine Soljak from The Hits radio station in Whangarei.
"It takes courage to jump from a plane and our programmes teach that what you have inside is greater than any obstacle."
The Drop for Youth skydiving project raised over $15,000 last year, and this year the foundation is hoping to increase that with a target of $20,000. Already $4650 has been raised. The cause can still be supported, even if you don't participate as a "dropper", with a donation on a Givealittle page.
The Graeme Dingle Foundation Far North teaches life skills through a programme called Kiwi Can. It's in 11 primary schools. There is also Career Navigator Ngā ara Whetū, a combined career readiness and peer mentoring programme that's in two local high schools.
The jump takes place on October 1 at Skydive Bay of Islands in Kerikeri.
givealittle.co.nz/event/drop-for-youth-far-north-2022
Tapeka Point ratepayers win Living Streets Award
The biennial Living Streets Aotearoa Awards were announced at the end of August and the only Northland town to win an award was Russell.
More specifically, it was the Tapeka Point ratepayers who won the Golden Foot Walking Award for Jim's Track and Fladgate Nature Trail on Tapeka Point.
The effort was community led and the Russell Gardening Club kicked off the fundraising with a donation. The project was then crowdfunded to the tune of over $15,000 to make a safer walk between Tapeka and Russell.
The existing track, formed by resident Jim Mowat, was extended over the Fladgate property in 2019 when the Fladgate family agreed to the property being used. It was developed as a safe alternative to having to walk on the road between Russell and Tapeka, which has no footpath.
Approaches to Far North District Council asking to install a footpath beside the road and an application for infrastructure funding were both declined. The community decided to extend the track themselves and bring it up to a standard where it could be used by residents and tourists alike.
Buckets of metal were carried in by people, bug hotels were made by Russell School students and seats were installed and dedicated to long-term residents Pearl and Laurie Coates, Ray Tait and Barbara and Jim Mowat.
The track is now used by kiwis at night, children can walk to school more safely and Russell Landcare trustees use the track to access bait stations. It's also part of Bay of Islands Walking Weekend and Jim Mowat, who is now 88 years young, walks it every day.
Paihia Daffodil Day a success
A Daffodil Day breakfast was held recently at the Kingsgate Hotel in Paihia to raise funds for the Northland Cancer Society.
The 55 people who attended were mainly from Paihia but there were some from Kerikeri and Opua.
In addition to the breakfast there were collection stands outside Waitangi Countdown and in Williams Rd on a Friday and Saturday. They were there to collect donations, sell raffle tickets and Daffodil Day teddy bears, pens and tote bags.
Waitangi Countdown donated a food hamper and other businesses donated for the gift hamper, which was won by Claire Williams.
The total amount raised was $5075.80.
R. Tucker Thompson creates youth development programme
The trust that maintains and runs the schooner, the R. Tucker Thompson, is creating a careers guidance, jobs and education programme for the young who come on board for the week-long sail.
Otago University recently conducted research that found measurable outcomes for those undertaking the voyages, including improved self-confidence, strengthening of personal identity and a better understanding of their own strengths.
The intention of the career path is to connect the graduate youths with services such as the NZ Institute of Skills and Technology through NorthTec, Queenstown Resort College in Paihia and Tai Poutini Polytechnic on the South Island's West Coast.
That will provide what the trust calls "pathways" to employment and apprenticeships on offer through the R. Tucker Thompson Cadetship programme. They will also work closely with Defence Careers.
In addition, the R. Tucker Thompson Trust has revitalised a one-year training programme for one or two graduate trainees who have shown an interest in the maritime industry. A Tourism Operations curriculum and Qualified Deck Crew course will be delivered over a six-month period through Queenstown Resort College and NZ Skipper Training.
Jo Lynch, chief executive of the RTT Trust, said the programme will be promoted to all graduates throughout Tai Tokerau.
"We have partnered with Smart Trade Solutions and Competenz to help employers and job seekers to initiate apprenticeships or other on-the-job training," she said.
"They have direct links to Fonterra, Babcock's Engineering and Foodstuffs and connections to building and construction through BCITO and the practical implementation of this connection will be through information provided to our youth following their voyage."
The initiatives are in their infancy and Otago University has agreed to focus its next phase of research on the longer-term education and employment outcomes for the graduate trainees.
Three Tractors Ago at Waitangi
A new exhibition that opened in the upstairs gallery at Te Kōngahu Museum last week in Waitangi highlights some of the major building and maintenance works undertaken at the Treaty Grounds since 1934.
Called Three Tractors Ago, the exhibition features 54 photos from a collection that has not been shown before, as well as a watercolour painting from Waitangi's Heritage Collection.
It has been curated by Waitangi Treaty Grounds curatorial manager Caitlin Timmer-Arends. The name Three Tractors Ago is credited to head groundsman Barry Keyzer, who on seeing a photograph included in the exhibition exclaimed "I remember when that happened, that was three tractors ago".
The exhibition features behind-the-scenes of staff and contractors, from replanting native trees to craning Kupe off the roof of Te Whare Rūnanga, learning what was involved in lifting the roof off the waka shelter, and the best place to source toetoe in Northland.
Caitlin Timmer-Arends comes from Marton, or what she calls "a small town in the Rangitikei". This is her first exhibition, although she has worked at Waitangi for a few years and has co-curated with others. She is eminently qualified to curate an exhibition on her own.
She has a BA in Anthropology and a BSc in Clothing and Textiles from Otago University and she did a postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies at Massey University.
She began work on this exhibition by sorting through about 4000 hard-copy photos and whittled them down to the 54 that are exhibited. She said it was a formidable task but worth it.
"A day or so after the exhibition opened, I received an email from someone who said they recognised their grandfather in one of the photos, and that's what the exhibition is all about, connecting people."
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