Boyle River Rotary Canterbury Earthquake Project

THE FIRST FUNDING ALLOCATION of $23,100 has been approved for the Boyle River project (see below). This project met the criteria by being a specially designed programme for Christchurch youth who had been affected by the earthquake.

Over the past six months the Canterbury region, particularly the greater Christchurch area, has been enduring a series of earthquakes, the largest of which have been 7.2 and 6.3 magnitude (September 4 2010 and 22 February 2011).  The consequence of this has been that many people have lost their lives and many more have had their homes and businesses destroyed.  Children and young people have been greatly affected.  Many have been forced to relocate with their families to temporary homes.  Many have left the city.  Many have had had to find another school to attend.  The social and psychological consequences of this are likely to be felt for a long time.

The Boyle Lodge is an outdoor education centre established as a project by three Canterbury Rotary clubs, Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Belfast some 32 years ago.  Over this time the lodge has provided outdoor education and adventure –based programmes to thousands of young  people.  The North Canterbury Alpine Trust which administers the Boyle Lodge has been considering in conjunction with Rotary District 9970 how it might assist those young people affected by the earthquakes.  We would like clubs in other Rotary districts to consider supporting the project which I outline below:

The Project:
We are asking club to support one or more young people to attend a programme of five days at the Lodge.  Each programme will provide for up to 30 young people from quake affected areas of Canterbury.  The programme would consist of a variety of outdoor activities run by our experienced and qualified instructors.  We plan to also engage supervisors who are skilled at working with young people to provide the support they will need outside the programme run by the instructors.  

Once we get over the immediate challenge of getting Canterbury and its people back on their feet the big ongoing task, particularly for many young people, will be to restore and build their confidence.  Young people will be selected in consultation with schools, non-government social development organisations and government agencies.

Many of these young people will come from families who have lost most if not everything in the series of earthquakes. Consequently we want to fully fund each programmes.  The cost of the five-day programme per young person will be $770.  This will cover all costs for the young person attending .  The breakdown of costs per child/young person is as follows:

Travel:                                      95.00

Accommodation:                 110.00

Cooks/supervisors:            181.00

Meals:                                      140.00

Programme instructors:    185.00

Equipment:                              39.00

Administration:                      20.00

Total:                                       770.00

We aim to have between 20 and 30 young people on each programme.  We are happy to provide programmes to suit a range of ages. Initially we will aim to provide for young people in the age ranges 10 to 12 and 13-14.

Clubs wishing to know more about the Boyle can read more about it by going to the website www.boyle.org.nz  

Clubs wanting to support this programme can send their donations to the Trust Secretary, Arthur Sutherland, 24A Wentworth Street, Ilam Christchurch 8041. Alternatively if the club prefers to make an online donation email Arthur at robyn_arthurnz@xtra.co.nz  

If the club wants further information I can be contacted at allenp@xtra.co.nz or 027 410 3325 

Yours in Rotary

Peter Allen

Chairman, North Canterbury Alpine Trust

Member, Rotary Club of Rangiora