Students lend a helping hand

Last week the ākonga from the New Zealand Certificate in Skills for Living (Level 1) programme lent a helping hand to the New Plymouth RSA and placed a poppy on the graves of all the soldiers to commemorate ANZAC day.

Helen Holswich Vice President of the New Plymouth RSA and President of the woman’s club said each year the RSA members try and put a poppy on all the graves of the soldiers but in recent years this has become challenging. 

“With COVID complications and a steady increase in the age of the members it has been becoming increasingly difficult for the RSA to be able to do this,” she said.

 “It was by chance that we stumbled across this class at WITT when their tutor Jane Slinger approached me a few years ago,” she said.

Helen and the New Plymouth RSA members can’t thank the students enough.

“Being able to call on this group of students has been an enormous help, I don’t think the students understand what it means to us,” she said.

Skills for Living Tutor Jane Slinger said she’s always looking for new opportunities to get her students involved in the community and this voluntary work with the RSA has been something new for them.

“Putting the poppies on the grave has been a great opportunity for the students to get out and involved in the Taranaki community. The community does so much for this group of students so it’s great to teach them to give back,” she said.