Second Week of Camps for Youthtown Quake Breakers

The second part of Youthtown’s Break from the Quake camps kicks off in just over a week with 250 Canterbury children being flown to camps throughout the North Island.

Youthtown has organised for more than 500 children aged 10-17 to escape the city over the July and October school holidays for fun and adventurous ‘Break from the Quake’ camps in the North Island.

The young Cantabrians will be based at three locations in Auckland, Hunua and Huntly where they will get to take part in a variety of activities. On arrival day the Auckland campers will visit ‘the Cloud’ to watch some of pre-organised REAL Festival activities at Auckland’s Queen’s Wharf. The camps are completely free of charge, with all costs including airfares, travel, food, accommodation and activities covered by Youthtown and other sponsors and supporters.

The October camps were originally scheduled to take place in the second week of the July holidays but inclement weather in both Christchurch and Auckland caused the cancellation of flights and postponement of the second week of camps.

Youthtown CEO, Keith Thorpe, says after meeting with a number of organisations in Christchurch it became clear there was a real need for a non-Christchurch based organisation to step in and work with local contacts to provide a way for the city’s youth to have fun and be kids again after dealing with the stresses of everyday life.

“The focus for the camps is to give these children a well deserved ‘break from the quake’ and we hope this week’s campers will take just as much away from their experiences as our first week of campers did,” he said.

The campers at Hunua will have fun with high ropes, archery, a visit to the Miranda hot pools a carnival day, disco and a night at the movies.

Auckland campers will take day trips which include visits to the Auckland Zoo, MOTAT, SKYCITY and a trip to Eden Park.

Campers in Huntly will also try their hand at a range of activities including kayaking, horse trekking, archery, low ropes and a Frisbee golf day.

All three groups will enjoy a day at Auckland’s largest theme park, Rainbow’s End.

The campers are being accompanied by selected supervisors and caregivers to ensure continuity of care while away from home. Youthtown has partnered with a series of organisations including Air New Zealand and The Levene Foundation to enable the camps to happen.

Other businesses that have generously donated products and services include Telecom, Farmers, Rainbow’s End, Auckland Zoo, MOTAT, Spirit of Adventure Trust, Subway, Northern Districts Coastguards, Eden Park Trust Board, Auckland Rugby Union, Skycity, Event Cinemas, Brightstar, NZ Maritime Museum, Snowplanet, Tree Adventures, Vero, Coca-Cola and KFC.

Youthtown has an 80-year history of providing physical, social and creative youth activities and was well positioned to take on a project of this scale.

For more information on Youthtown Break from the Quake visit www.youthtown.org.nz.