Community spirit through emergency service
The 2024 Marlborough Youth in Emergency Services graduating class, alongside Mayor Nadine Taylor, Marlborough Lines CEO Tim Cosgrove, Marlborough Youth Trust workers and emergency service volunteers involved in the YES Scheme. Photos: Supplied/YES
Marlborough’s next generation of would-be emergency responders have graduated after ten weeks of gruelling training.
Twelve graduates officially graduated at a special ceremony held at Marlborough Youth Trust on Thursday evening.
And with Marlborough’s emergency services buy-in to the programme being one of the highest in the country, there was plenty to celebrate.
Programme Coordinator Aaron Waters says he is proud to have witnessed the development of each graduate.
“The last ten weeks have been a breeze with this group, and I’m always proud to see the progression and confidence gained by each of the youths.
“Going from day one in Picton, where we do a team building exercise, to our Big Day Out last Saturday, the overall growth that our volunteer tutors and I see in these youths is huge.”
The Youth in Emergency Services (YES) scheme has been running in Marlborough since 2016.
Volunteers from local emergency response organisations across the region - including Fire and Emergency Urban (Havelock VFB) & Rural (Blenheim VRFF), Police, St John, Coastguard Marlborough, Land Search and Rescue Marlborough, Marlborough Emergency Management and Rarangi Surf Lifesavingall step up to help.
The team also had a visit to Base Woodbourne to see what was on offer from the NZ Defense Forces.
Aaron says a key part of emergency response is communication, which is a major area of improvement for all participants.
“This group’s engagement and work ethic from day one was of a really high level, but communication improved between one another and volunteers they work with while putting in hard mahi.”
With many of the emergency service tutors being volunteers themselves, Aaron says that the YES scheme also gives volunteers a point of pride in seeing their lessons absorbed and put into action by young people.
“Huge credit to volunteers from across the services who give up their time to volunteer, because we aren’t paid for this outside of seeing our passion for service, skills and experience passed on to new blood.
“From my position as a volunteer firefighter, we’d love to have these kids work or volunteer across any emergency services at some point in their lives - that doesn’t have to be right now, but I hope this instils a love of volunteering for their community.”
Graduates:
