Peter Dunne, Member of Parliament for Ohariu, collecting for Challenge 2000 – a Youth and Family Agency based in his electorate.
“Peter has been very supportive of our work since we began in 1988” said Kitty McKinley the Founder of Challenge 2000.
“He has always turned up to our community and young people’s events – no matter how big or small. He has always been there for advice and spends time with anyone who needed his assistance”
Pictured are Peter, Kitty and Mere who is “keen to swap buckets as he is doing really well collecting for us today”
Challenge 2000’s Odyssey group only has 4 weeks left! Over the past three months 34 young people from around the Wellington region have met weekly at St joseph’s Mt Victoria for 2 hours on a Sunday night. During this time we have been on a journey together looking at different topics such as Who am I?, Team Building, Communication, Relationships, the Faith context of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi, communication, positive relationships, Social Justice, the lived gospel and Values and Virtues. We have had guest speakers on many topics and have heard many different examples of people living out their faith and Catholic values today.
Many of the Odyssey participants attended a retreat the first week in September which focussed on ‘Our Journey to Justice.’ Throughout the 3 days we looked at Social Responsibility, Social Justice, Jesus’ example of living out Justice, as well as having inspirational talks from some of the leaders, team building and group bonding. The retreat was a chance for the young people to take time out of their busy day to day lives and be with the other young people and the leaders of Odyssey 2014. This was a great retreat with many stories shared, memories made, insights gained and laughs had by all.
Many of our young leaders have also stepped up and really committed to this programme. It is great to have youth lead youth so effectively – the Youth work Certificate in practice!
Thank you to all who have helped make Odyssey and the retreat possible; from delivering baking and bread, helping with transport, giving up your time, donations, and much more, your help has been greatly appreciated.
Roll on the next few weeks and keep a look out for this programme in 2015.
Wellington Barbershop Chrous group, VocalFX, were recently crowned the Pan Pacific and New Zealand National Barbershop Chorus Champions at the Pan Pacific Competition on August 16th, held at Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre. Pictured are Challenge 2000 Gap Students Pati Feleti and Junior Fanatanu, staff members Tovio Apolo, Heath Hutton and past Gap student Peter Gasologa. Having recently returned from the Barbershop International contest held in America, where they placed 10th, it was a great chance to perform in front of the home crowd. Tovio Apolo thought the performance went really well, “It was a good set and the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. Great to get a standing ovation as well. There were a few of the young people we work with in the crowd so it was great to show them what is possible.”
During the evening, the Musical Island Boys, who became Barbershop Quartet World Champions earlier this year were also honoured. They have been a great support to VocalFX throughout their preparation so it was great to be able to show our appreciation for them.
From Left to Right: Pati Feleti, Heath Hutton, Peter Gasologa, Tovio Apolo and Junior Fanatanu
Many of the VocalFX chorus will be helping Challenge 2000 by busking in support of the Street Day Appeal on Friday 5th September. If you want to hear some of the music head on down to the Wellington Train Station on the evening of Thursday 4th September from 4-6pm.
Exciting activity days during the holidays saw over 25 young people each day participate in sports, communication and fun games themed activities.
Sportsmanship was the theme of Sports day where we did activities and played sports that gave the young people an opportunity to use and work on their sportsmanship. On our Communication day we looked into different ways we communicate and listen with those around us through some action based learning activities. Our last holiday activity was to fill the day with lots of fun games as well as create some cookie monster cupcakes that the young people could enjoy at the end of the day.
We all have enjoyed the holiday activities and are looking forward to the next school holidays!
Relay Race
Racing on stilts
Blindfold challenge – communicating with voice and touch only
From the 17th-21st June Challenge 2000 took a Youth Justice Camp away. The group included two young men referred from the Lower Hutt Youth Court, two youth leaders and two staff. For our two young men the focus of the camp was to develop self-esteem and explore the big questions ‘who am I? And who do I want to be?’
The camp allowed the young people and staff to expand their horizons and to explore new and different parts of New Zealand such as Turangi, Taupo, Wairarapa and down the Kapiti Coast. Along with this the young people were exposed to a range of pro social activities and exercises including camping, bungee jumping, fishing, hiking, blacksmith work and visiting a music studio. Throughout our camp journey many laughs, stories and memories were created and it was great to watch the two young men explore who they are and who they want to be.
With the experiences and relationships built during camp we look forward to watching the boys continue to grow at Challenge 2000, with their whanau and in their own communities.
On Sunday 8th June, at Johnsonville Rugby club rooms, Challenge 2000 held their annual Charity Quiz Night. This evening not only allows Challenge 2000 a chance to fundraise to continue supporting our young people, it also enables them to spend time with their supporter – old and new, in a fun way.
For many of us Gap Year students, the Quiz Night proved to be our first ever quiz night, which was daunting at first but very satisfying in the end. We were all given different roles, from Food helper, raffle runner to answer sheet collector, handing out of prizes and more. For many of us doing this was a new challenge and helped to nudge us out of our comfort zone and have an opportunity to do something we would not normally get to do.
We would like to thank everyone who helped make this Quiz Night possible, to the Challenge Staff, family, friends and youth who contributed and participated on the night.
Most importantly, we and Challenge 2000 would like to thank all the people who came along on the night as well as the businesses, organisations, whanau and friends who donated prizes for our raffles. Thank you for your continued support of Challenge 2000 and all the young people and families they work with.
~Gap Students
Winner of one of the three main raffle prizes!
Quiz Team pondering a question
Everyone settling in as MC -Alex Ness, welcomes everyone
On Friday 23rd May Challenge 2000 celebrated youth week with an event, Be the Change Challenge, organised and run by our Youth Week Committee. It was a fantastic evening which saw Challenge 2000 working with The Rock and Johnsonville Youth Room to empower and support our Youth Committee to bring their event, Be the Change Challenge – positive responses to bullying, to life. Our event was held at The Rock in Ngauranga.
Our youth committee was made up of Matekino, Ivan, Shannon, Robert, Mandy and Leah, who were supported by Bridget, Edwardene and Hezekiah (The Rock). Over a period of six weeks, these young people met to talk, discuss, dream, organise and learn about the theme of Youth Week – Be the Change and what it meant for them and how they would translate that into a meaningful event for young people.
Through our talks and discussions we discovered a passion for Anti-bullying and discovered that Pink Shirt day (Stop Bullying Campaign) was on the Friday we were going to run our event. Things fell into place and we talked about how we wanted to shape Aotearoa. We decided on doing small workshops that would introduce the young people who would participate in our event into different positive responses to bullying. We took participants through a journey – power of words, overcoming being a bully or being bullied, strategies for anti bullying in school, communities, families and friends and opportunities to think about how we want to shape Aotearoa.
We would like to thank John Archbold from Archbold Design for painting Aotearoa for us over two canvases with the empowering words we wanted young people to reflect on and choose which one(s) they would utilise to shape Aotearoa.
Painted by John Archbold
Also a very huge thanks to The Rock for allowing us the use of their venue for our event as well as all the leaders who came along to help out on the evening too. It was a great to have our two groups of young people come together, meet, discuss different topics and participate during the evening.
Three of the Youth Committee members opening the evening with a song
Two of the Youth Committee members running the Power of Words workshop
From the 27th to 30th of April, Challenge 2000 took 36 young people away on a Leadership Camp. 23 young people were from 5 different schools around Wellington (St Catherine’s College, St Mary’s College, Bishop Viard College, St Patrick’s College Town and Newlands College) and 13 young people came from Hawkes Bay.
The theme for the camp was ‘What is your Legacy ’ and over the 4 days we looked at leadership; how to be a leader and what it means to be a leader. We had a some guest speakers who talked about different aspects of Leadership. Kitty McKinley came in and talked about ‘Relationships with Self, Others and God’ and the importance of having a strong relationship with all three. Michelle Brough, an ex Challenge 2000 Gap student, also came in and spoke to us about her Hero’s Journey and related it to how she got to where she is today.
This camp was a chance for people to reflect on things like; their own journey in life, meeting new people from different schools and walks of life and coming together to learn, experience and grow into one group. The 2 common themes that came from the young people throughout the camp was friends and family.
On the final day the young people were given the opportunity to separate into their school groups and talk about what their next steps could be. This gave all the young people a chance to share about what their hopes for their school was for the coming year and even rolling into next year.
A big thank-you to everyone who made this camp possible, the sponsorship, the baking, the various ways people helped and the on-going love and support.
As we celebrated 99 years of the battle of ANZAC cove, we had the opportunity to be involved with 3 Anzac day mass reflections and attend a memorial celebration in Havelock North.
Each year on ANZAC day we are reminded that we are all called to be people of love and peace and to remember and honour those who have gone before us.
This day gives us a chance for our younger generation to remember alongside past war veterans. In Havelock North we had an opportunity to meet 3 war veterans, the oldest being 97 and our youngest being 5.
Over the ANZAC weekend three masses took place, one in Hawkes Bay and two in Wellington, Eastbourne and Johnsonville.
Our staff, Gap year students and young people from both Wellington and Hawkes bay presented a drama at all 3 masses. This drama was a time when we reflected on the many lives lost, the suffering and pain experienced by our small country. We remembered the great sacrifice our soldiers and their families made so that the generations that followed could live in peace.
We are each called to remember those who served for our country and acknowledge those who continue to serve today.
We will remember them
A huge thank you to all Challenge 2000 staff, rangatahi, Bridget Roche and Kitty McKinley for supporting the Hui Aranga which was held in Wellington this year. To Dempsey and Karen Broad from Tu Hono as well as Turei Thompson for welcoming our Challenge 2000 whanau to join your ropu this year arohanui ki a koutou. For those of you who don’t know the Hui Aranga, is it is a national event where Maori together with the catholic faith celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The first Hui Aranga was held at Pukekaraka in Otaki in 1946 and our dear friends the Marist fathers from the society of Mary played a big part in how the Hui Aranga came to be with their early work with the Maori Misssion. What an amazing legacy Marists have started and continue to support.
This year over 1,200 people gathered at St Patrick’s College in Silverstream to celebrate the Hui Aranga over the easter period and what a great experience it was indeed. The Hui Aranga is made up of many events throughout the duration of the hui which include kapa haka, religious questions, sacred solo, sports day, choir competition, religious march and all the traditional catholic ceremonies in between all the fun and whanaungatanga.
A special congratulations to Mereawatea who sang ‘He Honore’ wrapped in her nana Kitty McKinley’s korowai and was placed 3rd for the Senior Sacred Solo you made us all so very proud.
Challenge 2000 you served well in the kitchen as kai mahi and ensured that all 1,200 plus people at the hui were fed. Thank you for honouring the living treaty of Waitangi by this generous act I stand proud of each and everyone of you who showed up and played your part.
