Blue Light, a nation-wide programme aiming to empower youth and break down barriers between young people and the Police, came to Te Anau on Tuesday (24 May) to meet with Te Anau Primary School children. 

The programme was established 37 years ago as a registered charity that works in partnership with the police to deliver an extensive range of youth programmes and activities, including education, driving licences programme, and camps with the New Zealand Defence Force.

Currently touring the South Island, Blue Light was invited to come to Te Anau by local police officer Kris Dale, who wanted to re-establish the programme in Fiordland. 

“Te Anau had Blue Light before, but with staff changes it was discontinued. There is a lot of negativity about the Police. We want people to know that they can trust us and come to talk to us,” Dale said.

The goals of Blue Light are to reduce the incidence of young people becoming offenders or victims of crime and encourage better relations between the Police, young people, their parents, and the community. It does this by providing young people with positive lifestyle alternatives and strategies to avoid becoming an offender or a victim of crime.

South Island Blue Light Co-ordinator, Nicola Paterson, was a police officer for 23 years before she got involved with Blue Light. She now travels the country bringing it to schools.

“We came to Te Anau, because Kris is one of those special people, who wants to help the young people in the community,” she said.

An inflatable obstacle course was set up at the Events Centre stadium for groups of children from Te Anau School to have a go. And they loved it – climbing, crawling, bouncing, sliding – every child coming out of the exit shoot sported a big smile and ran fast to join the queue to have another go under the watchful eye of Kris, the policeman.