Taradale Anzac service on Friday for the kids, by the kids

Students worked with veterans to organise the Spirit of Anzac Commemoration at Taradale. Photo / Kerry Hebberley

A "by the kids for the kids" build-up to Anzac Day tradition is set to continue on Friday with the staging of the Spirit of Anzac Commemoration at Taradale.

"It will be the third year this has taken place and it is really great to see," Taradale RSA president Peter Grant said.

The hour-long event at the Taradale Memorial Clock Tower at 11am is hosted by the RSA but is organised and put together by student leaders within the Taradale community.

"It is always an amazing day and it gives you so much faith in our kids.

"For an old veteran like me it gives you so much confidence in our young people — makes you go all warm inside," the Vietnam veteran said.

"The kids are picking up the baton for us — it is about letting the kids commemorate Anzac the way they want to commemorate it — let them express themselves."

Tamatea High School deputy head boy and girl Kelson McKay and Pyper Horton, along with Taradale High School deputy head boy and girl Marcus Hurst and Aimee Brooker, were part of the organising committee and have worked in with Mr Grant, and fellow veterans Taradale RSA patron Tig Lima and Peter Clark.

The event, which is aimed at children between 5 and 14, is significant in that it is organised by young people and carried out, in terms of performing and speaking, by young people.

Mr Grant said the only adult involved in the service would be a bugler, and the two keynote speakers would be from an intermediate and high school.

The speakers were among a group of young people who took part in a Spirit of Anzac speech day staged at the Taradale RSA last Friday and their efforts were remarkable, Mr Grant said.

"It was so good — during almost every speech you could see tears in the eyes of some veterans."

He said the speeches those attending the Friday service would hear were "pretty special".

Taradale deputy head boy Marcus Hurst said they wanted to put young people in a good light and show the community that the future generation was "intelligent and capable".

He said the organisation work had gone smoothly and he was proud and grateful to be part of it.

Mr Grant said they were expecting students from 12 primary schools, two intermediates and three high schools across the greater Taradale region to attend, and the public was welcome.

He said if the weather were to turn against them it would he held in the Pettigrew Green Arena, where it was staged last year after rain sparked the venue switch.