Record attendance at events

A record 4000 young people attended Blue Light events during a recent three-week community marathon.

The crew from Hibiscus Coast Blue Light including a shocked looking Senior Sergeant Sharon Stephens at Rainbow’s End. Photo: Blue Light

Fundraising for the KidsCan Telethon 2009 saw 600 youngsters go to Rainbow’s End at the beginning of August.

They were entertained by hip hop dancers and a police v fire tug-o-war, with a TV3 film crew catching all the action for Telethon night.

Another 500 young people attended a dance run by Canterbury Blue Light to raise funds for Telethon on the same night. In all $3,500 was raised for the KidsCan Charity.

A further 2000 kids from all over the North Island, 40 police staff and 40 community volunteers spent a great two days building relationships and enjoying the rides at Rainbow’s End. Police staff didn’t just supervise – they cooked some of the 5000 sausages devoured over the two days by the hungry participants.

This year a number of young people from wrap-around and youth-offending programmes also attended.

For the third year in a row New Zealand Blue Light was the major sponsor of the national Under 15 rugby tournament, hosted this year by New Plymouth Boys High. This is the most prestigious rugby event in the secondary school calendar for this age group and has a 10-year waiting list to get into the competition.

A great contingent of local police staff provided support to the 16 teams, a total of 400 young men. The eventual winners were Mount Albert Grammar who beat Napier Boys High 25 – 5.