International Youth Festival a huge success
Posted: 09 March 2010
St John New Zealand’s Northern Region (SI) hosted to 400 participants for week-long Festival, with participants coming from around New Zealand, as well as members of the international St John family from Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Wales.
The Festival began on with a Maori welcome on 25 January. The welcome was notable for the first public performance of a haka and waiata (song) written specifically for St John in New Zealand. The opening ceremony occurred later that evening, when Garry Wilson, Chancellor of St John in New Zealand, declared the Festival open. This part of the ceremony also launched the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of St John in New Zealand.
The competitions were on 26 January. In the International competitions, the New Zealand team won Champion Country, as well as seven of the other eight competitions.
In the National New Zealand Competitions, Northern Region (SI) won 13 trophies, including first and second place in the team competitions, first and second places in the individual competitions, and – for a record third year in a row – the Sir Alfred Robin Memorial Shield for Champion Region.
The rest of the International Youth Festival was similarly action-packed. Participants completed an ‘amazing race’ around Christchurch on 27 January, and finished the evening with dinner on the Port Hills overlooking Christchurch.
On 28 January, participants spent the day at Hanmer Springs, north of Christchurch, trying out the thermal hot pools, the bungy jumping and the jet boat rides. That day finished with a rural A & P Show at the farm of Judith and Pat Hoban. Judith is St John New Zealand Hospitaller.
29 January featured a youth symposium, ‘Making a Difference’, with guest speakers Jaimes Wood, St John New Zealand Chief Executive, mountaineer and motivational speaker Mark Inglis, and Andrea Evans, a Youth Leader from Wales who, like Mark, knows the difficulties of life as a double amputee.
The final event of the Festival was the fantastic gala dinner at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand in Christchurch on the evening of 30 January.
The New Zealand team, who won Champion Country at the International Youth Festival. L-r: Sarah Gagliardi, Rosie Whiting, Garry Wilson, Karina Hallberg, Matthew Wright. Team managers were Jacci Tatnell and Angela Williamson
Posted by: Admin
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