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Awards presented to high performing Hastings youths

Tuesday 22 May 2012, 2:13PM

By Hastings District Council

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 The winners of the inaugural Hastings District Council Youth Potential awards.
The winners of the inaugural Hastings District Council Youth Potential awards. Credit: Hastings District Council

HASTINGS

The winners of the inaugural Hastings District Council Youth Potential awards have all shown amazing commitment to achieving their goals.

The awards were presented last night to celebrate the achievement and success of young people in provider programmes, with a focus on youth from the Flaxmere and Camberley communities.

The ambassador award was presented to 16 year old Caleb Kabir, who was nominated by the Foundation for Youth Development (FYD). Caleb joined the Project K mentoring programme in 2011 and was involved in painting a mural in the alleyway off Upham Street in Havelock North, and helped in the FYD fundraising event – the Big Walk. He was also one of 50 students from around the country who was selected to attend Jump Start 2011, which allows participants to make a tandem parachute jump from a RNZAF C130 Hercules aircraft.

Caleb Kabir regularly spoke at FYD school, mentor and fundraising functions. He says “I believe the only way forward for me is through hard work and being self-reliant. I will continue to seek out opportunities which offer an improved lifestyle.”

“I have achieved so many personnel goals in the past 12 months and am immensely grateful to the many people who have helped me along the way.”

The outstanding female award was won by Meg Paterson She has been a volunteer on the YMCA holiday programmes over the past two years, putting in an incredible 323 hours of work. Meg is also involved in netball and basketball at Sacred Heart College and belongs to a number of choirs at the school.

The Outstanding Male award went to 15 year old Manaia Canterbury who was nominated by the YMCA. He is a leader in the YMCA school holiday progamme and a coach and participant in Waka Ama. Manaia has recently been selected for the World team which will represent New Zealand at the Waka Ama World Championships in Canada in August 2012.

The group award has gone to 12 students from Havelock North High School. The students were part of the Project K mentoring group and included some middle of the road students and others who were struggling to achieve at school. All 12 students remained highly committed to their studies for the whole year, and five attained a merit pass in NCEA level one.