OneChance Youth Awards organisers happy with event

Todd McClay was a speaker at the OneChance Youth Awards. Photo/Cinzia Jonathan

Youth who organised an awards night for their peers are happy with how the event went and proud to see youth recognised and rewarded.

The winners of the inaugural OneChance Youth Awards were revealed last Friday at an awards night, held at the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre.

The award ceremony was organised by a team of Year 12 and 13 students taking part in the 2017 OneChance Youth Project.

The OneChance Youth Awards aims to celebrate excellence in youth (aged 15 to 24) achievements or service to the community.

Categories included Youth Services Icon Award, Most Outstanding Youth Performer and Youth Cultural Leader of the Year.

A People's Choice Award was also given out to the youth who received the most online votes in the lead-up to the awards.

OneChance Youth Project course leader Te Ao Leach, 16, thinks the awards night was a successful event.

"Bringing everything together was really nice. It was great to see everyone there."

She says everyone's feedback was really good and she felt proud because all of their hard work had paid off.

Te Ao says she was proud of those who were recognised for their achievements and was happy they got to be recognised for their hard work.

"It was great that night was dedicated to the youth. Everyone could see we are quite successful and it's great to recognise that."

She loved the experience of organising the event.

OneChance Youth Project team member Archy Tuakanakore, 17, says it was great to see how all their work and commitment paid off, and to see a great event come together.

"It was really amazing to see youth be presented with praise and awards, and just being acknowledged for their outstanding achievements."

Archy says the highlight was seeing the youth be acknowledged for their outstanding achievements and for them to know people in the community notice what they achieve.