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Around 250 local students from Years 7 and 8 attended the annual Blue Light Fun Day trip to Rainbows End on Sunday, September 10.
Five buses took the kids and volunteer helpers from Mahurangi College, Wellsford School, Mangawhai Beach School and Otamatea High School for the popular day out.
They joined young people from Kaikohe, Whangarei, North Shore, West Auckland, Thames and Paeroa, while urban and South Auckland Blue Light groups attended on the Saturday. Generations of Rodney and Kaipara youth have enjoyed the annual trip, which has been running now for nearly 30 years. On hand at nearly all of them has been local Blue Light veteran and community youth coordinator Shane Gould, who said support and co-ordination from schools and police officers helped the annual excursion to run smoothly – most of the time, at least.
“Coordinating this event has its challenges, with late changes and ‘no shows’ keeping our adult volunteer supervisors busy on the morning of departure,” he said. “But over the years we have had very few incidents.”
Gould added that the fact that one trip included the announcement on the bus radio of the death of Princess Diana served as a reminder of just how long the fun days had been running – she died in 1997.
This year, the Blue Light organisation is celebrating its 40th anniversary, while the North Rodney Blue Light branch has been running since 1992.
Info: Visit www.nrbl.org.nz
