Nukutere to buy drums with youth donation

Nukutere College accepted a $7000 donation on Friday, collected by local youth.

Young people hit the streets on October 26 to raise money for the school, which lost a block of classrooms to a recent act of arson.

The initiative was driven by the Avarua Catholic Youth executive committee, with help from youth groups Sacred Heart in Matavera, Saint Mary in Arorangi, Saint Terese in Mitiaro and Saint Paul in Titikaveka, as well as the Catholic Boy Scouts. Students from Nukutere College also helped with the collection.

Members of the Avarua Catholic Youth executive committee presented the donation to Nukutere College at a school assembly last week.

President of Avarua Catholic Youth Tim Nubono told the students how much was raised, saying the executive committee was driven to raise the money in part because most of the members are former students of the school.

“We wanted to give back to our college.”

Principal George Rasmussen thanked the youth for the donation, saying he would like to earmark it for the purchase of new drums for the school – with drums being among the many resources destroyed by the fire.

“Drums are so much a part of the school and so much a part of our culture, so it would be great to mark this (money) for that purpose,” said Rasmussen.

Around 80 youth assisted with the fundraiser, with the help of a truck from T&M Heather and collection buckets from Cook Islands Red Cross.

The runathon began in Avarua at 7.30am and went clockwise around the island. The event happened to coincide with another runathon fundraiser by the national under 15 and under 17 netball teams to help them in their preparations for the December Netball in Paradise international tournament at Telecom Sports Arena – with the two groups crossing paths in Titikaveka.