Speech
Project K Awards
To: Graeme Dingle, Executive Trustee of the Foundation for Youth Development and your fellow trustees; Lani French, Project K National Manager; Ruth Palmer, Acting General Manager of the Ministry of Youth Development; Distinguished Guests, Project K Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen. Greetings, kia ora, kia orana, fakalofa lahi atu, taloha ni (sign ‘good evening'). These are the languages of the Realm of New Zealand.
As the Patron of the Foundation for Youth Development, I am delighted to welcome you all to this beautiful Government House Auckland this evening for the presentation of awards to outstanding graduates of the Project K Programme.
I would like to take this opportunity to talk a little about Project K and the work of the Foundation for Youth Development.
In the mid 1990s, author and adventurer Graeme Dingle and his partner, lawyer Jo-anne Wilkinson - who is overseas and unable to be with us - became concerned about the negative images shown of New Zealand's young people.
As people who were more interested in deeds than words, they decided to do something about it. Through their adventures and professional lives, Graeme and Jo-anne had learned the value of having a dream, setting goals, perseverance, teamwork and having sound values to fall back on in difficult times.
Those lessons and values came together in Project K . In recent years - with the addition of the Kiwis Can, Stars and a host of other programmes - the Project K Foundation has become the Foundation for Youth Development.
Throughout the 14-month programme, participants have experienced a combination of a wilderness adventure and a community challenge supported by ongoing one-on-one mentoring. Graeme wrote of the programme: "We believe that it brings together the unique attributes of our country to provide direction and purpose to the lives of young New Zealanders; our wonderful outdoors, our close communities, our willingness to join in and our determination to succeed."
A very big thank you to those who have played a vital role, that of a mentor. Your involvement can be pivotal and without your enthusiasm and flair, our students may not have got through their programme.
More than a decade on from the first Project K graduation, the Foundation's programmes now help more than 16 000 young people every year to be confident and contribute postively to society. The programme has been well evaluated by the Ministry for Social Development and favourably audited by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
It was because of these achievements that I agreed to be the Foundation's Patron and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Graeme, Jo-anne, parents and everyone involved in the organisation for their dedication to helping young New Zealanders.
Congratulations to the Project K finalists here this evening. You will have learnt the importance of taking on challenges, making decisions, knowing how to ask for help and the satisfaction that comes from contributing to a team and helping others.
In being chosen for an excellence award, you have shown something more. The initiative you displayed in the mentoring partnership and the independence in setting and achieving goals means you have displayed the best of leadership qualities. The late Sir Edmund Hillary, who was a founding trustee of this Foundation, said: "You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated."
Sir Edmund was no "ordinary chap", and in receiving a Project K Excellence Award, you have shown that you are far from ordinary as well. Welcome indeed - and congratulations again. I wish each one of you a bright future. Tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā kouto katoa.