Celia Lashlie and Norm Hewitt to Visit Franklin Again

Celia Lashlie and Norm Hewitt will be back visiting Waiuku in October and excitement is starting to grow about their two public events. These are:


A public meeting at the Waiuku Town Hall on Monday 15th October at 7.30pm. Celia and Norm will continue to advocate ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. On this visit they also want to challenge the Waiuku community on their vision for the future of the town – what it looks like today and how they would like it to look in the future.


Celia and Norm extend an invitation to women to meet with them for muffins and tea and coffee on Tuesday 16th at the Waiuku Town Hall between 12pm and 2pm. A crèche will be provided however, mothers will need to pre-register by Monday 15th October by calling Mary Walker on 237 1300.


Celia Lashlie is best known for her recent book ‘He’ll be Okay: Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men’ and for coordinating the ‘Good Man’ project which she spoke about on her previous visits. Despite these achievements, when asked Celia points to her two children as the greatest accomplishment in her life.


“In my view, this remains the most challenging of the assignments life has delivered to-date and my most significant achievement,” says Celia. When Celia and Norm meet with the women of Waiuku they will be sharing their own experiences from what they’ve learnt as children and parents.


Norm Hewitt came to fame as an All Black and is one of only a handful of first class rugby players in New Zealand to have reached 296 first class games. Yet Norm was firmly established in the hearts of New Zealanders through his honest and public account of the harmful effects of alcohol on his life and his time on ‘Dancing with the Stars’. Norm’s mission is “to support Rangatahi and Whanau with positive options within an experiential environment.”


Both Norm and Celia are founding members of He Papapounamu Foundation which promotes the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. A brief on the Foundation talks about this idea:


“In recent years we have seen an erosion of our villages and the retrenchment of families behind the walls of their homes…We need to rebuild our villages, to create modern villages that reflect the world in which we live and that allow people the time and space to pool their resources in the raising of the children who live within that village.”


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