Photo by Leona Kaye-Ivitu
The Get Kids Active Trust aims to provide teenagers with an opportunity to leave the couch and enjoy being in a testing outdoor environment.
A new trust, Get Kids Active, this year put 700 young people through the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge with the help of funding from the Rotorua Trust.
Sergeant Steve Sutton, the Western Heights Neighbourhood Policing Team Supervisor, says the idea of the trust is to provide kids, who would not normally have the motivation or financial means, with the opportunity to participate in organised fun physical activities.
It has provided an opportunity for positive interaction between teenagers and the NZ Police.
“The idea is to get as many kids as active as we can who would otherwise normally not be active.”
Steve said the idea worked in well with what he was doing in neighbourhood policing, where young people can be at risk or were living in deprived situations.
“This trust is eager to get the opportunity to give the kids a go at something they would not normally do.”
The Tough Guy and Gal Challenge at Lakes Ranch, Rotorua, is run over a course that includes a range of obstacles and lots of mud. This year, 400 youngsters did the junior Tough Guy and Gal Challenge and 300 from Western Heights High School and Rotorua Boys High School completed the senior challenge.
Feedback forms from participants were universally positive, ranging from “being dirty is okay” to “I can achieve anything I put my mind to”.
“We want to show them that there is more to life than online gaming or social media, so they can try something new and physically demanding at the same time as enjoying themselves.”