National Youth Festival: St John Youth compete for top title

St John Youth compete for top title at National Youth Festival

Eden Park was packed last Saturday as St John Cadets battled it out to find the best in the country at the St John National Youth Festival and Competitions.

The Festival is the major event for St John Youth in New Zealand. Twelve teams from the three St John Regions in New Zealand – Northern, Central and South Island – were tested as teams and individuals in first aid, healthcare, leadership, communications and drill (marching).

Props, make-up and ‘patients’ were used to create realistic accident and emergency situations so competitors can respond as they would in actual accidents and medical emergencies. Cadets were faced with a tangled mess of scaffolding with six injured patients, a distressed young man who had been self-harming and an unconscious patient on the floor of a locked toilet, with a bystander who didn’t know CPR.

Eunice Ng from the Northern Region was awarded the title of Champion Individual, with the South Island Region winning both Champion Team (Olivia Scott, Georgia Davison, Mark Holdaway and Samantha Mokomoko) and Champion Region.

“Nerves were running high on the day, but these young people did well to keep a level head and stay calm when treating the ‘patients’ and demonstrating their first aid knowledge,” says St John Community Programmes Director Sonya Gale. “Competition was tough but the winners showed great teamwork and excellent skills across the different testing areas. Competing takes a huge commitment to preparation and training, so I’d like to congratulate everyone who took part and gave it their all.”

This year’s festival had a theme of ‘hauora’ or health and wellbeing and cadets and the public were invited along to meet community youth organisations and find out about careers in health.

St John would like to thank the Festival sponsors for their generosity in supporting St John Youth: Laerdal, OfficeMax, Auckland Transport, King’s College, Eden Park, Havaianas, The Flying Moa and the North Shore Events Centre.

More than 6,000 people participate in the St John Youth programme, which has been going strong for 86 years in New Zealand. It focuses on positive youth development, offering young people from 6 to 18 years great opportunities to develop leadership and decision-making skills. It encourages discovery, adventure and learning – with an emphasis on having fun and meeting new people.

For more information on the St John Youth programme, please visit http://youth.stjohn.org.nz.

ENDS

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