Saturday saw the final day of Rotorua's inaugural Cactus programme, an eight-week regime which aims to challenge behaviours through a disciplined, regimented training programme based on a military boot camp.
It ended in spectacular fashion with the young participants pulling a fire truck some 800m down Fenton St after a gruellingday that began eight hours earlier.
As reported here, The Daily Post spoke to one teen who says the programme has changed him. He now aspires to be a leader. Even if he were the only participant to experience a positive change, the programme has been a success. What's more likely however, is that most, if not all, of those who took part have found something in themselves they did not previously realise they had or were capable of.
This programme is making a real difference in our community. The values and lessons these impressive young people have gained and learned along the way will shape their futures and be passed on to their peers, other family members, and later in their lives to their own children.
While boot camp style programmes may not suit all, this one certainly appears to have made a difference. Parents told those who ran the programme how their teens had changed for the better since starting on their Cactus journey.
Course co-ordinator, police sergeant Steve Sutton and his crew should take a bow. Just as the young participants deserve recognition for their achievements as a result of the Cactus programme, those who run it deserve recognition for finding just the right recipe for success to effect positive changes in the young people they led.
It's to be hoped that after this first-up success, the programme will be continued and will go on to change the lives of many more young people in our community, creating leaders for the future.
