The board, staff, volunteers and whanau at Challenge 2000 say a huge thank-you for all their love, support, care and commitment that you have given to us in so many ways during 2013. We wish you all a very happy, peace filled and life-giving Christmas. We look forward to seeing you in 2014.
“We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas crib. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat.”
~ Archbishop Oscar Romero
Summer holidays have been and gone, but we sure did have a lot of fun!
These holidays we ran four activities days that included Battle Hill Orienteering, Sports, more Sports and Swimming!
Lets start at the very end of our holiday programmes… Friday 24th January found us at Battle Hill where the young people and staff were split into groups, given a compass, a set of questions to answer by traversing Battle Hill and the time when our BBQ lunch would be ready. It was such a gloriously sunny day that we were all had to be conscious of applying and reapplying sunscreen! Young people and staff learnt the significance of Battle Hill and some of the history behind it and all groups climbed to the top.
We started our holiday programmes with a Swimming Day at Keith Spry pools in Johnsonville, which had young people and staff splashing and laughing playing on the inflatable toys, trying to get the ball in the basket ball hoop, snorkeling and the favoured activity of jumping off the diving board to see who could make the biggest splash!
Then on Wednesday 15th and 22nd January we went along to ASB Sports Centre for a sports-stravangaza! We played Hockey, Badminton, Basketball, Netball, Dodgeball and Ki O Rahi. Young people and staff had a great time competing against each other!
Thank you to those that have supported us and made our adventures possible, especially Pub Charity.
On Sunday 1 December 2013, we celebrated Challenge 2000’s silver jubilee with a birthday dinner at The Pines restaurant. Wellington turned on a perfect day in honour of the occasion!
The evening was a wonderful celebration of 25 years supporting young people and families in our community. Current staff and board members were joined by young people, family, friends, volunteers and members of the community who have supported Challenge2000 throughout the past 25 years.
Our MC Tim Gordon lead us through an evening where we were entertained with stories of the early days, memories were shared, old and new friends met, and new connections were formed. We were all in awe of the talents of Vocal FX who performed some barbershop items for us. The final act was a song written by one of our staff in honour of the 25thbirthday – a fitting tribute!
During the evening, Fr Eddie Condra was honoured for his part in the founding of Challenge in 1988, and his faithful commitment to the ongoing work of Challenge 2000 today.
Guests were given a candle to take away with them as a symbol of hope for the future – to remind them of the work that Challenge 2000, with the support of so many, does to keep the dream of social justice, social responsibility and personal dignity for all people alive!
Please see our flyer below about our Social Justice and Leadership Pilgrimage 2013! Registrations will close 22nd November. Print off Registration form and send in to challenge2000@xtra.co.nz
On Saturday 16th November we will have a team of car washers in the Remax car park, 18 Moorefield Road (by our admin building), with buckets, sponges, cleaning supplies and big smiles ready to clean cars! If you, your family or friends have a car please come on down and support us, it’s only $5 per car!!
If you have any questions re this event, please contact Bridget Masoe on 477 0045.
During our confirmation classes in term 2 a big focus was put on service and the practical outreach of being a church. Now in their holidays 13 young people turned up for a Service Day in which we had fun while doing some hard work. We moved a huge pile of sawdust for the local school grounds man, and cleaned windows for the local church. Half of us also went to a local hospice and learned a bit of what they do and then spent time cleaning, sweeping and dusting. All were grateful for the help.
Well done to those who turned up and put the effort in!
On the 6th of September we had our annual Street day appeal. All of our staff, gap students, family members and many volunteers went out onto the streets to collect and busk to raise money to fund the programmes that are run throughout the year. Everyone was very excited, and looked forward to collecting as well the opportunity to promote Challenge, the work that we do, who we are, and talking about some of the many programmes that we offer. Without the help and support of the Wellington public we wouldn’t have the flexibility that we have to be able to create different programmes that meet the needs of the people who we work with. This was a day enjoyed by all, and we want to say THANK YOU to all our collectors and the wonderful people of Wellington who donated.
Our first school holiday programme was a hit! We were fortunate to have a fabulous sunny day and we took advantage of it at St Brigid’s school grounds. We started off the day at Challenge 2000 Youth and Family Centre – there were 35 young people who came along to participate and have fun! We had the push play trailer from Sport Wellington, and had set up three different games – Touch rugby, Netball and Uni Hockey.
Split into small groups to help people get to know one another
Lined up in order of age!
By lunch time we had all worked up a massive appetite and lucky for us our amazing Trish had worked tirelessly to create 120 delicious ham buns!! We had a splendid lunch break, had our fill, and some people relaxed, ready for the afternoon, while other got into skipping, even double dutch, some played basketball, and others played a game of touch.
D E L I C I O U S !
After lunch, we broke up into different groups, some played volleyball, badminton, skipping, swing ball and Lape! The push play trailer had so many games for us to choose from and we did our best to play as many as we could! Throughout the day we kept putting on the sun screen to keep us safe as we played til our hearts were content. Everyone had such a fabulous time and and were all very tired at the end of the day.
Thank you to Sport Wellington for the Push Play trailer, St Brigid’s for letting us use their school grounds, the young people for giving everything a go, staff and volunteers for all their support and to Trish for our yummy rolls! We are all looking forward to our Friday Fun Day! Keep an eye out to see what else we get up to at our Holiday Programmes!
Challenge 2000 congratulates the Magpies on their Shield win. Challenge 2000 Hawkes Bay were proud to meet you at the airport. Our young people will be there to support you at your games. If you ever need a group of energetic, passionate youth leaders, just contact us and we’ll be there. Go the Bay!
