Lions Youth Exchange

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 14, 6 September 1983, Page 5

Lions Youth Exchange

The Waimarino was well represented in a recent Lions Youth Exchange trip to Australia when four young people from Ohakune and Raetihi were selected to join three others from the North Island to make up the New Zealand contingent of seven. The Waimarino representatives were Dean Harford (Raetihi), Erin Goldfinch (Ohakune), Leanda Oliver (Ohakune) and Stuart Bartlett (Raetihi). The other members of the New Zealand contingent were two girls from New Plymouth and a boy from Feilding. They travelled over to Brisbane on 3 July to join the thirteen others from Japan, Hong Kong, West Germany and Denmark and some Australian representatives to participate in a sightseeing and educational programme organised by local Lions Clubs on

Queensland's Gold Coast and Toowoomba. The contingent of twenty young people spent two weeks on the Gold Coast and one week in Toowoomba before returning to New Zealand on 24 July. For many of the local contingent, it was their first trip overseas and a very worthwhile learning experience. Only one of them, Dean Harford, is still at school — he attends Ruapehu College as a 6th former. Erin Goldfinch works for the Bank of New Zealand in Ohakune, Leanda Oliver is with Reynolds Motors in Raetihi and Stuart Bartlett is serving an apprenticeship with . Ohakune electrician Mike Fetzer. On their return to the Waimarino each of the four gave a 5-minute talk about their trip to the Ruapehu Lions club at a function in the Ohakune Lions Den last month.