Wha¯ nau day a huge success for families
With close to 1000 through the gate, Rangitane's Te Kete Haora Wha¯ nau Ora family's day was a huge success on Saturday March 7.
Held this year at the Dannevirke A&P Showgrounds the whole inner ring was dotted with activities to intrigue, entertain and educate children and their wha¯ nau. Rangitane o¯ Tamaki Nui a Rua Te Kete Haora had organised a large number of local organisations to provide these activities, running a good third of them itself.
The day was sunny and hot although a breeze caused a number of gazebos to collapse. The public in all age groups came out and celebrated the day.
Children were offered creative challenges like the Spin Art Paint Machine, games like Kerplunk, matching fruit and vegetables with where they came from run by the Wha¯ nau Ora Navigation Service, making up booklets like The Birds I Met Today or My Story About Tilly after viewing exhibits run by Te
Manawa from Palmerston North, creating shapes with play dough and other resources run by Appleton Kindergarten and running the Police Slalom in a police jacket.
There were lots of experiences such as the riding of ponies, dressing up and having a photo taken at the REAP photo booth, dancing with Mainly Music from Knox Church, getting a temporary tattoo, playing with the Dannevirke Toy Library's equipment and catching bubbles.
There were two sausage sizzles — one hosted by White Ribbon — and a healthy eating booth promoting five fruits a day.
This had given away 300 fruit kebabs by 11am — children returning for more after making up their combinations of pineapple, water melon, mandarins, apples, blueberries.
Serious other health messages were promoted the THG promoting cervical testing and the HPV vaccination which prevents some cancers, free to all teenagers and up to 26 years. Smoke Free had its promotion, as did White Ribbon against domestic violence.
Uku Tangi — a self-healing programme designed to keep children and parents safe by returning to traditional Ma¯ ori ways back to nature drew keen participants.
At noon Te Ringa Kaha Kapa Haka amazed the locals with their performance and this was followed by a vigorous game of Ki-o¯ -Rahi.
The move to the new venue was much applauded, several families commenting it took 30 minutes to go around the activities at the Dannevirke Sports Centre last year and 90 minutes at the A&P Showgrounds this year.
Rangitane' s Te Kete Haora coordinator Gloria Hauiti was thrilled with the day and grateful to all the groups who came.
Several activities were cancelled because of the coronavirus including face painting and moko design and water play was stopped by the water restrictions but otherwise there was plenty of variety, she said.