Every Boys and Girls Rally enjoy another term

Every Tuesday a group of boys or girls will be playing games or creating art and craft at Brunswick Hall.

It's called the Every Boys and GIrls Rally and is organised and run by Katherine and Gavin Ander for the last two years.

They recently closed out another successful term and Katherine Ander said it was open for anyone to join.

"It's a Christian-based youth group from 8-years-old to teens with a balance of physical, educational and life values."

Every Tuesday evening they alternate between having the girls and boys rallies at Brunswick Hall from about 7pm to 9pm.

They have a night of games one week and a night of craft the other.

"For the craft we decorated little boxes with shells and stuff like that and we're going to put fudge in it for father's day for a gift. If it's mother's day or Christmas or something like that we'll put the craft towards it."

The rallies were recently donated 100 paint test pots by Resene and a $100 voucher for craft goods at Mitre 10 - something Ander was extremely grateful for.

The kids work towards gaining certain skills and earn badges that are sewn to a sash they would wear.

Ander said the activites were a way of embracing what was done in the past to entertain children.

"There's model making or florist or shell work so there's all sorts of crafts we can do. It's just good old fashioned craft and stuff like that that's not done so much now that there's a lot of computer work and gaming and stuff like that.

"This is sort of keeping the old fashioned values and honesty, generosity, fairness and respect that we bring through our time."

They usually start the night with a march and a stand at attention - something that harks back to the beginning days of the Every Boys and Girls rallies during war time. They'd then have announcements followed by their activity whether it was games or craft. The night ends with a devotion and supper in the shape of a drink and biscuit.

Often children stop going at age 13 as high school gets too busy for them to attend. If they stay on at the rally they take up a leadership position.

Katherine Ander welcomed anyone who wanted to bring their kids along to the rally. She can be contacted at 06 342 1080.