Rev Phil Warner with some of the Marton youth who will benefit from a fund raising walk next month. Photo / Supplied
Reverend Phil Warner reckons the young people of Marton are pretty special and he wants to ensure the success of the youth programme at his church.
The St Andrews Youth Programme, established six years ago has grown from just a handful of kids to two groups, he said.
"There is one for primary age on Wednesday afternoons and one for high school students on Friday evenings."
"The biggest ongoing issue for us is funding," Warner said.
"So we have decided to stage a 30km Walk for Youth on April 6."
He said the walk will entail six laps around a 5km circuit in Marton.
St Andrews took the bold step of employing full-time youth worker, Jasmin Vanderwerff, two years ago and the programmes have gone strength to strength.
"It is not an easy thing for a small church like ours to set up a youth programme.
"We did not really have the funds and rely on the support of various foundations in order to finance the work."
He says that although Marton is a small town with a population of around 5000, there are a lot of young families living there and youth activities were limited.
"Since the groups started some of the other churches in Marton have joined with us supplying leaders and help."
As a keen walker, Warner put his hand up to do the walk and he says quite a few members of the youth group and also some adult church members have agreed to join him.
"St Andrews hopes to raise significant funds to help to finance the continuation of the youth work by having business and members of the community sponsor the walkers.
"The team are looking at having t-shirts printed to wear on the day so there is a sponsorship opportunity there as well."
Sponsors can call Phil on 021 114 8980 or Jasmin on 027 35 35753 or email youth.standrewsmarton@gmail.com
'It’s going to really accelerate that rebirth or renaissance that Whanganui’s had.'