We all know the health system is increasingly coming under pressure, and we all need to play our part in being that ambulance at the top of the cliff, otherwise it will come back to bite us all in the future.
Sport is a readymade vehicle to help with health promotion and getting at-risk youth on the right pathways – if we use it the right way.
Role model is a term that can garner a bit of debate. Often, as an example, we hear that top rugby players aren't role models, they are just rugby players. Well, like it or not, kids will be inspired by those they look up to, and so they will tend to "model" the behaviour they see.
What we are really saying though, is not all high-profile people are good role models – for an example of that this week, come on down the Australian cricket team.
Not all sports stars want to be role models (unless they get a sponsor's endorsement … "then I could be interested") and heck knows, we don't want those banned Aussie cricketers being role models for anyone around these parts.
There is no doubt that sport and its stars can have an impact on the behaviours and lifestyles within our community, it just depends how we utilise sport and its high achievers to get the best out of the inevitable influence that they have.
So who better to step up then, than Dame Valerie Adams. This week she has been based here in Hawke's Bay preparing for the Commonwealth Games, training at the Regional Sports Park.
Having her in the Sport and Health training facility, alongside so many of our region's emerging young athletes is priceless.
Her first entrance into the gym last Monday was gold. There were already nearly 20 top young schoolgirls training, and the looks on all their faces when Valerie joined them said it all – the inspiration for the talented young athletes from a range of sports, and inspiration for Valerie as well, was a great example of what can happen if we get high achievers and our general public all together under the one roof.
Having Dame Valerie training in the facility all week has been great, yes she is a great athlete, but it is her amazing work ethic, humility and general human qualities that is so good to have rubbing off on our youth.
As the Sir Graeme Avery led community fitness centre trust's vision unfolds, we will see more and more such interactions as the main facility construction has started, more excellence retained in the Bay, and more inspiration and belief instilled into our youth, to go on and become their best – be that a healthy contributor to society, or for some, to kick on to become top representative athletes.
The old saying of a child in sport is a child out of court is also truer now more than ever.
But it's about getting the right people, in the right place at the right time. And that's what we can be better at, in terms of utilising our great sporting culture, to positively inspire health and behaviours of our communities.
To have Richie visit a great bunch of impressionable young kids at Kimi Ora school was invaluable, and well done to the young man Blaze, principal Matt O'Dowda, and all the support team for making it happen. As great as it was, we need to make sure the momentum from such fleeting visits carries on.
• Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
