From the top to the bottom of the North Island within 5 days.

Alexie and Savannah from Kerikeri High School joined our Wellington conference this year, and Mia (our upper north island delivery lead), caught up with them during the conference to have a yarn about their experience.

One month ago, we had our conferences in Wellington and Dunedin, and I am still buzzing. What an amazing experience to see so many like-minded students coming together to create awesome content in the road safety space. There are many highlights to point out!

Today we chat with Savannah and Alexie from Kerikeri High School, who made an incredible effort to come to Wellington from the Far North. They only found out about the conference 5 days before registrations were closing and within a couple of days, they made the magic happen. 

Mia: “Kia ora Alexie and Savannah, welcome to the Wellington SADD conference. You are from the Kerikeri High School in Northland. Tell us a bit about yourselves.”

Alexie: “I am Alexie, and I am from Kerikeri High School. It’s been a good time coming here.”

Savannah: “Hi I am Savannah. As Alexie said we are from Kerikeri High. It’s great down here!”

Mia: “Awesome! It is great to have you. What made you join SADD in the first place?”

Alexie: “Well, the team in Kerikeri is quite small. We thought coming down here would help us to get the experiences and ideas we need to expand our SADD team. So we can get more safe drivers on the roads.” 

Mia: “Great. It is such a long journey from Kerikeri to Wellington. How did you make it happen to come to the conference?”

Alexie: “A lot of planning. We were definitely texting a lot back and forward with all the organizers.”

Mia: “Something really worth mentioning is the community support for the funding of your conference costs. Can you tell us a bit more about it?”

Savannah: “So we actually reached out to quite a few places such as the Rotary Club and NewWorld, but before we got the chance to hear back from them Alexie’s parents sponsored us, who are the owners of the Fish & Chips Shop Calypso in Kerikeri Town (hot tip: It’s great by the way! Go there if you are ever in Northland😊). They decided to donate us $500 each towards our flights. It made it so much easier.

Alexie: “Yeah, it made it realistic to come here and to get the experience.”

Mia: “Amazing! And then we also had the community partners like Far North REAP who supported you. What challenges did you face when you were reaching out for support?”

Savannah: “Well, we actually found out about this conference 5 days before the registrations closed. It was a very big job to do within a short time and it was quite daunting at the start.”

Alexie: “Also it was on a public holiday. Trying to get the school involved was difficult, everyone was on their holiday. Definitely, that was a huge challenge.”

Mia:” Well done! What a commitment, we love it. What is your plan after conference?”

Alexie: “We are going to go back to Kerikeri and show them everything we have done, explain to them how we have done it, and then trying to get more people on board and get the SADD team more active.”

Savannah: “ Yeah, just being able to create a legacy. We are Year13 so it is our last year at Kerikeri High School. We want to make sure that the SADD team continues after we have left. We want to make it possible for the groups to follow after us.” 

Mia: “You mentioned the conference was very helpful for you. What was one key thing that stood out for you?”

Alexie: “Definitely showing us how to engage more with our peers. And activities that we can do such as a SADD week at school. All that is really useful.”

Savannah: “The challenge that we were working on the last few days was extremely helpful.”

Mia: “Thank you so much for sharing your insights. Is there any key message that you want to give to your mates to be safer on the roads?”

Alexie: “Basically, don’t drink and drive! It’s not cool. Don’t speed!”

Savannah: “As fun as it may seem, but is genuinely not cool to put your friend’s life at risk. No matter what they say…. you can’t just say she’ll be alright. You can’t say that when someone is dead.”

Alexie: “Not cool. Don’t speed!”

Thank you so much for being part of this and coming along. We are really proud of your efforts and achievements. You are such an inspiration to your peers. We are excited to see how you get on with your future plans for Kerikeri High School.