Twelve days of Christmas: Blue Light kits teach young to keep safe

Blue Light are putting their grant towards activity books and DVD's. Photo / Blue Light Ventures

Auckland Airport is giving $10,000 each to 12 charities as part of its annual 12 Days of Christmas initiative. The Herald is profiling each initiative in the lead up to the big day. The $120,000 came from change dropped off by travellers at the airport this year.

It's important for kids to know how to keep themselves safe and a friendly puppet dog named Bobby has been teaching them how to do it.

Senior Constable Bryan Ward came up with the idea in 2005 and he and Bobby travelled the length of New Zealand addressing school children and promoting messages such as how to deal with bullies and how to use the internet safely.

They filmed 76 television episodes over three seasons and were named ambassadors for Blue Light Ventures, a police initiative that aims to build a positive relationship with young Kiwis to reduce crime and help the youngsters reach their potential.

Blue Light spokeswoman Wendy Robertson said they plan to use the $10,000 grant from Auckland Airport to offer educational kits to kids aged 3 to 6 in the South Auckland region.

Bryan and Bobby. Photo / Blue Light Ventures

"As a spin-off we have put together activity books and educational kits that teachers can use in class, each kid will get a copy of a DVD with the shows on it and the activity books as well."

Operating in New Zealand since 1984, the charity has around 20 full-time staff.

"A lot of it is driven by local police.

"There's 68 branches nationwide, some have paid coordinators who coordinate their events and activities in their region, and the others just have voluntary staff," Robertson said.

Auckland Airport's general manager of people and safety Anna Cassels-Brown was impressed with the initiative Blue Light had taken to help young people.

"We directly employ over 50 young Aucklanders every summer to help customers through our travel peak and we love what Blue Light Ventures are doing to help young people stay safe and reach their potential," said Cassels-Brown.

Robertson said the grant was "amazing" for Blue Light and they were looking forward to getting into the schools.

"For us it is amazing.

"It means that we can do work in the South Auckland schools that we'd not normally be able to do," she said.