Fourth annual Rotary Rotorua North Apprentice Awards lend helping hand

Twelve young, up-and-coming apprentices were given a hand with tools through the annual Rotary Rotorua North Apprentice Awards. Photo / Supplied

There were plenty of smiles and grateful recipients as local apprentices received a helping hand with their training journeys.

The fourth annual Rotary Rotorua North Apprentice Awards were presented recently to 12 up-and-coming apprentices. They each received vouchers for $800 worth of tools and equipment.

The Rotary Rotorua North Club has always been committed to helping young people further their education or training and has been awarding educational scholarships for more than 15 years to young people heading off to university, polytech or trade schools.

With trades making up a large portion of the community, it is a vital sector the club has wanted to help.

The funds it donates are raised from its Saturday Kuirau Market.

The club was once again supported by several sponsors in presenting the latest awards.

The sponsors donate a portion of the money, as well as their time, resources and connections in sourcing great value tools relevant to the apprentices’ trades.

Bryan Collins, Rotary Rotorua North Club youth and vocational committee director, says the reaction from the apprentices was great because they were getting recognised for all the training they were putting in.

Collins comes from a trade background, having been in the building industry for 48 years, and has trained a lot of carpentry apprentices.

“To get recognised by someone in the community like Rotary is a bit different. It’s a lot of satisfaction for them to be recognised.”

He says encouraging young people into trades and training is important because skilled people are needed to carry out the industry’s wide range of jobs.

The 12 awardees were Bede Henderson, Kaisten McAsey, Ila Ford-Robertson, Kruze Karere, Lee Waters, Dennis Tule-White, Apache Davidson, Harpreet Singh, Travis Tina, Sam Bigwood, Craig Grifkins and Azhar Jalil.

This year’s sponsors were Dave Healey from O’Briens Plumbing, Jared Gray from J.A. Russell, Bunnings, Sandy Cleland from Palmers Rotorua and Mitre 10 Rotorua.