SAFER September week at Putaruru College

Mia recently caught up with Nikita from Putaruru College to chat about their SADD week, how their SADD group is going and how they found the planning and organisation of their events.

Hi Nikita, it is awesome to chat with you via email. I am so excited to hear all about your SAFER September week and share your awesome activities.Firstly, tell me about yourself, what do you love doing and what are some things we should know about you?

My name is Nikita and I have been a part of Putaruru College’s SADD group for 3 years. I have been a part of one mock crash and attend a very helpful SADD workshop once. I enjoy baking, organising and giving gifts and these have all come in handy with Putaruru’s SADD crew. I am dutch and Kiwi and my FAVOURITE colour is orange :)

Awesome, thank you for sharing this. My favourite colour is green just in case anyone wonders :) When did you get involved with SADD and why? What is your role?

I got involved with SADD 3 years ago, starting as a year 11. I joined because I had a friend already in the group and other friends were joining up with me, I also struggled to grasp why people couldn't live with their licence conditions for one year, like what is so hard with that?!  I wanted to ensure that SADD was a group which remained in the school and that students had the opportunity to see that driving safely isn’t that difficult.

I totally agree with you and we are so lucky to have you as part of SADD. How is your SADD group working together and you mentioned to me before you meet weekly?

Our SADD crew meet irregularly, due to the fact that the group consists mainly of Year 13’s in school leadership roles. The crew is happy to help out with planned activities and when they produce an idea for an activity the whole crew gets on board and accomplishes it. We are all friends and get on together really well.

This sounds like a great team dynamic and getting on well will make it so much more fun. Was this your first SAFER September campaign in your leadership role?

Because at our school the leader of SADD must be a year 13, this was my first time running the Safer September campaign however it was not my first time being involved in it.  This year was the first time we have accomplished a whole SADD week instead of just a day within September.

Congratulations on your achievement. Having a full week dedicated to SADD is fantastic and shows your guys commitment. We are stoked. How did you go about the planning for the SAFER September campaign and how would you describe your leadership style?

Since our crew are very busy people I took the role and created the agenda so all they had to do was show up if they could make it. One of the activities was run by another student in the crew where we all helped and supported her. I would describe my leadership style in this committee as a bit forward, making decisions fast so we don’t waste time however also being flexible as I understand that the crew have other commitments. In saying that I ensure that we still have fun and provide free food for the committee. For Safer September we brainstormed a few ideas which I then created into a week plan and ran it past our principal. I then collected resources that we would need to complete our activities. We didn’t do any ‘out of the box’ ideas this time as time was limited for both running the activities and organising them.

Great effort will always be rewarded. The smaller activities are as important as bigger events. Why do you think it is important to have a leader in a group and what do you think makes a good leader?

I think that it is important to have a group leader so that the group stays on track and that things get achieved, also if committee members have a question they know who to go and find for help. The leader needs to be well organised and considerate of the other members, they need to be able to publicly speak and get attention from the group and most importantly then must be welcoming and fun.

Absolutely, every group needs a leader to be organised. What activities did you run throughout your week?

For SADD Week we posted on our Instagram page every day. We ran an Information SADD assembly on Monday which included a little promo to join our crew and then we finally gained 4 new members who were all year 12 allowing the committee to continue next year. On Tuesday we ran focus or failed. On Thursday we asked students to participate in a video sharing positive driving tips and on Friday we ran chalk outlines. We handed out lollies everyday of the week also.

Which ones did work really well and what was your favourite moment? How did you get your peers engaged in the activities?

All of our activities went well even though our computer shut down during our assembly slideshow.  We learnt to find the keen Year 7’s and then ask them to bring their friends. We also carried around a full bucket of lollies everyday that week, giving lollies to all who participated - this gained much popularity within the school. My favourite moment would have been seeing how keen some students were to participate and when we gained new members.The best way to get peers engaged is LOLLIES, and just simply asking students personally to join in.

Since I started with SADD I’ve discovered lollies work like a magical wand (laughing). Did you work together with community partners?

This September we did not work with any community partners however we have many connections within the community and have worked with them before. This community bond may be useful again in Term 4. In term 3 the SADD committee went up town and split up, each pair went into shops to hang up a SADD poster if that was allowed. Through this we managed to hit all the open shops and services in Putaruru and the community is now aware that Putaruru College has students willing to make a difference and that we have a SADD committee.

You did an incredible job! What are your three top tips when planning SAFER September?

Tip 1: Prizes, Students love free stuff. Tip 2: Food, students love food. Tip 3: Support and push your committee to get them outside of their comfort zone and to get activities done. Don’t let them be lazy but HAVE FUN! Extra free tip: if you got an idea just run with it and do it :)

Fantastic! Thank you for the extra free tip. It was lovely chatting with you and I look forward to coming again for a visit. Keep up the good work!