Troubled kids get help from police to turn their lives around for 30 years
Police-run Blue Light discos are marking 30 years of filling dancefloors and helping young people.
Best known for the softdrink-fuelled discos attended by teased-haired tweens in the 80s, Blue Light has expanded and morphed over the years.
One of the many to benefit is Aaron Kingi, who at 13 wasdrinking and using drugs.
But a night in custody turned the young boy's life around and today his biggest dilemma is whether to join the police or the army. "I made a bad decision in choosing friends and got involved in alcohol and drugs. Because of this, I ended up in the Whakatane police cells," Aaron, now 16, said. "I never want to wake up in the police cells again."
After his run-in with the police, Aaron was ordered to attend a Blue Light school holiday programme. "At first, I saw it as punishment but then I started to enjoy the events, especially helping the other kids who were younger than me. They saw me as a role model."
Vanessa Maxwell, 12, dances with Constable Ron McMillan at a Blue Light disco in 1985. Photo / NZ Herald
Blue Light has 70 branches, including Kids Gone Fishing with patron Graeme Sinclair, Rainbow's End fun days, driving licence programmes and residential life skills camps, run in partnership with the Defence Force.
Each local Blue Light branch also runs programmes such as drug and alcohol education, after-school care, camps for victims of sexual assault and youth justice programmes.
He has been chosen to attend an International Blue Light Youth Leadership programme in Melbourne and Blue Light has arranged his first passport.
His local Blue Light in Matata has helped him get his driver's licence, diving certificate and work experience. "I have gone from a young boy who was hanging with the wrong crowd getting involved in drugs and alcohol to a young man who has a direction in life," he said.
