It's 9am on the first day of the school holidays, and around Masterton, teenagers wake to a mass text message. In response, they gather for a morning of shovelling, raking, grubbing, mowing and wheelbarrowing.
That's right - a group of Masterton youth yesterday spent their first free weekday morning at a working bee.
Responding to a message from coach Mark Harris, more than a dozen Athletics Wairarapa members headed down to the yet-to-be completed Wairarapa All-Weather Track, in the Colin Pugh Sports Bowl.
There was grass to be mowed, edges to be grubbed, and loads of topsoil to be shifted and levelled around the edges of the track and clubrooms.
Participation gave the young athletes an exemption from training.