Local children stepped it up over the school holidays in an effort to do some good in the community.
Auckland Council’s pools and leisure division decided all school holiday programme providers – there are 11 sites across Auckland – would hold a Make a Difference Day for all children where they give back to their local community, said team leader recreation at Howick Leisure Centre, Amy Yeoman.
Although we do a charity fundraising day later in the year, the aim of this day was to do some good in our local community,” she said.
“We are super proud of our holiday programme kids. About 140 children took part with such great attitudes.”
At Howick Leisure:
- The 5-7-year-olds made cards for their local heroes (fire, police and ambulance) where they all wrote personal notes to the staff protecting the community
- The 8-10-year-olds visited the Pakuranga Park Retirement Village and sang songs and played recreation activities with the Seniors
- The 11-13-year-olds visited Bramley Reserve and took to the beach with rubbish bags, cleaning up rubbish from the water and shore.
“How great would it be if other holiday programme providers out East did a similar day,” said Amy.
“There are so many groups/things to get involved in and so many children that could give back. Some of our other holiday programme sites cooked for the homeless, some revamped local gardens and heaps more.
“The Leisure Centres that provide Holiday programmes have made a nice start to something that can be continued and hopefully spread to other providers across Auckland…maybe we can all pay it forward.”
