Christmas at the Park, with a military milieu
Army cadets to run confidence course for kids
Troop on in. Christmas at the Park is taking on an army theme this year, with three army projects set to take place on site.
The Property Brokers event, an annual free-to-enter Christmas concert, has allocated space and resources for the army to highlight three areas of interest to our Hawke’s Bay communities.
On December 3, the Mitre 10 Park fields in Hastings will be transformed into a concert arena for a Christmas night of celebration and army fun.
Sir Dave Dobbyn is set to lead the headline acts, and The Hits morning team of Megan and Adam will ensure the 4.5 hours of stage entertainment stays on track.
However, there will be much more to do at the event.
Every year Christmas at the Park runs a confidence course for the children, aimed at getting children to see how much fun being in a park with simple props can be. Christmas at the Park producer David Trim said this year the army cadets will run the confidence course and provide information where children can learn more about what they do and how they can be part of them.
The New Zealand Cadet Forces, NZCF, is a voluntary, uniformed organisation that provides leadership, personal development opportunities and adventure-based training to youth aged 13 to19.
It has three branches — Sea Cadets, Army Cadets and Air Cadets — and it is the Army Cadets who will lead the confidence course.
Major Harley Benton said the NZCF aims to instil leadership and honourable values in New Zealand youth.
“Christmas at the Park is the perfect place to showcase how much fun the army cadets have and show parents that NZCF can provide so much personal development for our youth . . . ” Benton said.
In conjunction with the army, there will be a wall of Christmas greetings so people can write a message to our soldiers deployed in Ukraine.
Once the wall is complete, the NZ Army will roll it up and courier it to Ukraine, with hopes it will reach them before Christmas.
“While we may not be engaged in direct-fire combat, our soldiers are still away from their homes and families this Christmas”, event producer Trim said.
The third aspect of the army involvement comes from a combination with Ahuriri Maori Wardens who have supported Christmas at the Park for 14 years.
Christmas at the Park is produced by the Kaisen Charitable Trust and has the support of both Napier and Hastings councils and prominent businesses in Hawke’s Bay.
Hi my name is Maizey, I am 2 years old and I live with my mum, dad, brother and sister. We live on a lifestyle block about 50 minutes from town, which is normally a great thing, but on the 26th of October something went drastically wrong and mum and dad realised in the blink of an eye that we were a very long way from help.
It started off as a normal afternoon and I was playing outside, mum had just finished the lawns and suddenly, I was in so much pain. I started to cry, mum quickly realised that it wasn’t my normal cry so she rushed over to see what had happened. I pointed to my foot and mum could see that I had been stung by a bee. Mum carefully flicked out the sting and took me inside to take a closer look.
I don’t remember a lot after that as by the time mum has gotten me into the house I was covered in hives, mum said my face was swelling, I started to struggle to breathe and fell in and out of consciousness. I was having an extreme anaphylactic reaction to the bee sting and my life was now hanging in the balance.
Mum tells me that it was a moment she will never forget, they knew they were fighting against time to save me. Dad ran to the end of the driveway to get enough cell phone coverage to call 111 and mum followed him with my small lifeless body, hoping and praying that they could get someone there in time to help me.
All mum can remember from that moment is the sound of the helicopter and the ambulance arriving, she said she “remembered feeling so completely helpless, absolutely terrified and she couldn’t take my eyes off me”. It was hard to comprehend how quickly everything happened and she knew that they could lose me, but she was so thankful that having access to the helicopter meant I would have the fastest route to the hospital and the best care in the process.
I don’t really remember meeting Heath, the Critical Care Paramedic for the Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter, but Mum and Dad said we were lucky to have him and the rest of the crew’s help that day. Heath told mum that responding to incidents with children is always hard and with my extreme anaphylactic reaction they knew needed to move quickly.
Mum and Dad are so incredibly grateful to the whole team who helped us that day. Mum says “as prepared as we can be for the future – we are realistic to know that this may not be our last helicopter flight as we can’t stop the bees. We continue to count our blessings that Maizey is with us thanks to the crew and services who helped us that day.”
This mission was an example of exceptional teamwork between everyone involved, which contributed to saving Maizey’s life. Thanks to the ambulance and the helicopter being on scene so quickly Maizey was given the critical care needed and released from hospital the next day.
We all saved Maizey’s life that day. Your ongoing support of our lifesaving service ensures that we will be available for emergencies like Maizey’s well into the future. Please consider donating today – www.hbhrt.org.nz/donations