Duke of Ed students help communities
Students around the country are making a difference to their local communities while they work towards their Duke of Edinburgh awards.
Before lockdown, groups were picking up rubbish and learning new sports, and during lockdown they helped neighbours and friends by delivering food and caring for animals and children.
In February, a new award with an environmental and sustainable focus was introduced, called the Ka¯ ka¯ riki Journey.
A group of students from the supported learning centre at Hutt Valley High School picked up rubbish around their neighbourhood.
But during lockdown, many students were prevented from doing sports or community work, so they looked for new ways to help those in need.
Students at Napier Boys’ High School delivered baking and meals to the elderly.
Chris Bonthron, 16, was working towards his gold award, and used his new skill of learning to drive to deliver baking to elderly Rotarians.
Hannah Walker from Solway College, a boarding school in the Wairarapa, was unable to continue her volunteering with Brownies for her Voluntary Service Section of the silver award. Instead she started sewing bags, producing up to 10 a week, for the Carterton Boomerang Bag programme, which provides reusable bags for people to reduce plastic waste.
Award leader Claire Connor said this time made students think ‘‘outside of the box’’, communicate with others and reach out into a space that was ‘‘new and could be uncomfortable’’ for some.
Duke of Edinburgh New Zealand national director Karen Ross said the way the award was designed meant, by chance, it would flourish under lockdown.
‘‘At a time when people were curtailing what we could do, it meant it was a good time for people to step up and be part of a community.’’
There were 22,000 people undertaking a Duke of Edinburgh award in New Zealand currently. The stuff students came up with ‘‘has blown us away,’’ she said, as the unprecedented events of the last few months ‘‘got kids out of the norm’’.
It was nice to see a bridge formed between generations, she said. Many students were making moves to help the elderly, who were particularly vulnerable during Covid-19.
‘‘In each way, everything is very simple, based around the needs of humanity. It’s the simple things in this time that make a difference.’’