Fantastic turnout for inaugural Coromandel Youth awards

The weather on Saturday didn't deter the finalists and their friends and families from turning up to find out who the winners of the inaugural Coromandel Peninsula Youth Awards were.

Master of Ceremonies, the lovely William Lewis from Tairua, entertained the crowd and ensured the awards ran smoothly. With performances from the finalists in the Totally Thames Young Creative Award, and food supplied by Aroha Catering, PAK' n SAVE and Olivers, the afternoon was a highlight to all who attended.

And the winners are:

Smart Environmental Green Thumb Award for Environmental Care - Luci Quinn

Luci Quinn is from Thames and was nominated by St Francis School for the Enviro Schools leader role she undertook during 2013 &14, when she was a student there.

Luci led a team of students in environmental actions and projects such as vegetable gardening, growing fruit trees, and worm farming and also helped the school promote healthy eating and reducing waste, especially plastic waste and successfully led the group to achieve Silver Enviro status. She was also involved in growing native seeds into young trees and planting them in the William Hall Reserve, the transfer station, and the Hauraki Terrace playground.

Thames Rotary Helping Hand Award for Community Service - Billy Turner and Adventure Zone (Thames South School)

The judges had a really hard time choosing the winner of this category, so they chose an individual and a group.

Billy Turner is a young man from who has had a dream to be a firefighter since before he was even allowed to join. Billy started as an active member of St John Cadets, and then volunteered with Tairua Fire Brigade, but quickly enrolled when he turned 16.

Billy also turns out for the Whangamata Volunteer Fire Service and is informally involved with the Tairua Land Search and Rescue Team. He has recently joined the Tairua/Pauanui Coastguard Unit as an inductee and is upskilling in their training levels. Billy is mature, keen, willing to learn, committed, happy to take orders, and is a great community contributor and role model.

Adventure Zone (Thames South School) - In 2014, Will Johnston, Richard Simon, Krista Lockett, Marisa Whittle, and Kaycee Carter were senior team leaders of the Thames South School Adventure Zone group. Part of the Adventure Zone project was the Jacobs Ladder makeover.
The senior team led Thames South School students to clean up and beautify Jacobs Ladder.

As part of the project they investigated how much rubbish they could collect on the ladder, they removed the rubbish and then advocated for TCDC to put rubbish bins along the way. These young people learnt the ethics of looking after our environment and made valiant efforts to keep our community clean and green.

Hauraki PHO Kia Kaha Award for Perseverance - Eden Tuisaula

Eden Tuisaula has always embraced music and found solace in it when life got challenging at times. Eden grew up, as many young people do, in an environment plagued by family violence. This made it difficult for Eden to focus on everyday school commitments and impacted the way in which she interacted with others, and once she left school she struggled with drugs and alcohol while trying to find her place in the world. Through her music and the support of good people in her life Eden opted to be positive and proactive, rather than let it get the better of her and define who she was.

Eden has been involved in a number of creative projects that have challenged family violence and in 2014 Eden started work with Te Whariki Manawahine o Hauraki: Women’s Refuge as a performance advocate, managing youth events. As part of this role Eden managed the 2015 Waitangi Day FreNZ event, which was a music event that again highlighted the issue of family violence.

Eden hasn’t let her personal experiences define who she is, she has used those experiences to highlight the issues and try to make the community a better, safer place for all. She has also created opportunities for others to express themselves musically, which for some people is a really positive outlet when they are struggling, and in the process has become a positive young role model and leader within our community.

Coromandel Peninsula Youth Collective Legend Award for Leadership - Strong Kind and Respectful (SKAR)

Daniel Gage, Shayne Hill, Ciaran Fill, Amy Williams, Devin Clark-Memler, Kendra Cochrane, Kelsey Archer, Samantha Connors, and Darian Lunjevich-West were nominated by the project supporters for putting themselves forward to be part of the SKAR project to challenge bullying.

The SKAR project involved the development of an eight poster campaign delivering messages for youth, by youth, that talked about being “strong, kind and respectful” within their community. Each poster was photographed by a young person and designed to target a particular aspect of bullying the ambassadors could personally relate to.

Their messages portrayed what their contribution to changing the culture around peer to peer victimisation would be. The project inspired our communities to consider and the way we treat each other and the impact bullying has on our society.

Totally Thames Young Creative Award for Artistic Expression - Tina Haakma

Tina is an A grade photographer and is currently vice president of the Thames Camera Club and is the club's specialist lighting technician. She voluntarily puts together training evenings including creative and technical workshops, and photo shoots. Tina’s support has enhanced the standard of photography at the club.

Tina is also very much involved in musical theatre where she is an actor, musician, and singer on stage and where her lighting and sound technician skills come to life. Tina has been part of a wealth of stage productions over 2013-15 including The Show Must Go On, Tutus on Tour, You Must Remember This, Totally Thames’ NZ Corporate Battle of the Bands and Fashion Extravaganza’s, Mayhem and Melodium, Pohutukawa Festival Wearable arts Show, Mamma Mia, and most recently Tribute to the Anzacs.

The Thames-Coromandel District Council People's Choice Award, chosen from the nominees of all the categories, received 731 votes over the week it was open to the public, and there were only six votes between the top two.

TCDC People's Choice Award for Excellence - Billy Turner

"It is inspiring to see so many young people involved in their community in such positive ways," says David Hammond, Council Chief Executive. "Congratulations not only to the winners, but to all the finalists, nominees and especially to our communities who have nurtured the potential in these incredible young people."

The Thames Youth Forum, alongside the Coromandel Peninsula Youth Collective and in partnership with Thames-Coromandel District Council, the Thames Youth Centre, and Population Health were proud to present the 2015 Coromandel Peninsula Youth Awards.

"The awards were designed to celebrate the achievements of young people on the Coromandel," says Darian Lunjevich-West, Thames Youth Forum. "It is important to value young people’s creativity, empathy, and leadership while also recognising the challenges they sometimes face just trying to contribute and make a difference."

The awards will be held again in two years, and it is the hope of the Thames Youth Forum, that a youth group from one of the other areas will put their hand up to host the 2017 event.

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