Waipā celebrates its young achievers
21 June 2019
More than 120 young people from across the Waipā district were recognised for their outstanding efforts at last night's Waipā Youth Awards.
The annual awards, which celebrate achievement in academia, arts and culture, community service, leadership and sport, saw a record number of young people nominated for their achievements from February 2018 to January 2019.
Waipā mayor Jim Mylchreest said it was fantastic to see so many amazing nominations signalling that the future of the home of champions was in very good hands.
Every year I'm blown away by the work our young people are doing for themselves and the community. This year we had 50 nominations in the sports category alone which says great things about the quality of our young athletes.
This year's excellence recipients were:
Academic: Sam Bain (Cambridge High School)
Arts & Culture: Molly Goodeve (Cambridge High School) & Miranda McArthur (St Peter's School)
Community Service: Ella Higgins & Tessa Winter (Cambridge High School)
Leadership: Nu'umoe Duffy (Cambridge High School), Georgie Edgecombe (St Peter's School) & Adriana Vasinca (Te Awamutu College)
Sport: Charlisse Leger-Walker (St Peter's School)
Multi Achiever: Leah Belfield (Te Awamutu College) & Victoria Hos (St Peter's School)
The evening was hosted by Te Awamutu College with support from the Waipa District Council. The Te Awamutu, Kihikihi and Cambridge Rotary Clubs, Construction Advantage Ltd, CMYK, Cambridge Lions, Business Networking International and Storey Sport were sponsors of the event.
Mylchreest said it was crucial to acknowledge all of our nominees for their commitment and passion to their individual pursuits.
Each person nominated has achieved something extraordinary. They don't do it for recognition but simply because they are driven and focused so it is important for us to recognise and encourage their efforts.
One student, Sam Bain was awarded the certificate of excellence for academic achievement. He was Cambridge High School's Proxime Accessit in 2018 and received an NZQA Scholarship award for gaining four scholarships.
The excellence for sporting achievement was awarded to Charlisse Leger-Walker who was a member of the Tall Ferns Basketball team who won bronze at the Commonwealth Games. She captained the New Zealand Under 17 basketball team and attended the World Champs in Belarus among several other achievements.
This is the 17th year of the awards. Each year it is held at one of the three main Waipā schools. Nominations were open to students aged 14 - 18 who live, or have attended school in Waipā.
For the full list of recipients visit waipadc.govt.nz/YouthAwards.