Upside Youth Mentoring Beach Day 2023

Yeah Bouy!! Beach Day 2023 was on!

After a couple of disruptive years, we were so stoked to get our toes back to the sand at Kohimarama Beach for this annual day out! While the weather hadn't been beach weather leading up to the day, the sun came through for a fun time for all. 

Taking the safety advice of experts swimming/water activities weren't an option, but that didn't matter with more than 100 people (matches, whānau, volunteer supporters and donors) coming together at Kohimarama Beach on February 25th—and had heaps of fun in the sun!

Celebrating our awesome community

Upside Beach Day is a celebration of what makes our community unique and special. It's where we come together once a year with our young people, their mentors, and their whānau plus our amazing supporters, volunteers, and donors to celebrate the magic of mentoring. 

Mentorship with Upside has given young people from all walks of life a chance at success.  By coming together for this annual event,  inevitably everyone who attends comes away feeling included and part of something bigger than themselves. This is important to us because we would not be able to do this important work without the support of our community!  Upside's whānau is so important to us and that's why we want everyone to feel like they are part of something special. We love celebrating with them at our events, and always love the games and enjoy a shared meal!

Beach Day is always a great way to start the year, because it takes our mentors, their young people and others going through a similar journey out of their comfort zones in a safe space, so they can make new friends and start to create some awesome memories.

Whilst swimming was not allowed, we did not let that stop everyone from having a great time. Particularly as our Beach Day celebrations this included fantastic facepainters, volleyball, a sandcastle building competition—and lots of fun games including one where you had to dig for hidden treats.  Always a winner!!

 

Our amazing rangatahi (young people)

Upside rangatahi are amazing. These photos capture and showcase their willingness to trust in the mentoring process, and allow themselves to explore being their best selves—but most of all they capture their beautiful smiles! 

We love seeing these incredible photos from all our events—and we hope you'll be inspired by them too!

It is important for our Mentors who are all volunteers dedicating a couple of hours a week to their young people, to be able to have the opportunity to mix with other mentors. Equally, our young people form the most awesome bonds with other rangatahi who are part of the Upside mentoring whānau.

Bring a towel, sunscreen and a smile!

And whilst we say to people "all you will need to bring a towel, sunscreen, and a smile"! Each time they attend an event, they always bring so much more, like their enthusiasm, and awesomeness.

We are so grateful for the support we received from Aotearoa Gaming Trust, Kohimarama Yacht Club and Aktive to make this Beach Day a success for 2023.

A big shout-out to all our volunteers who helped make it such a fun day! We couldn't have done it without you!

 

 

 

CHECK OUT THE FULL ALBUM ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE (Don't forget to follow our page for Upside Updates)

Note: These photos were taken by young people, mentors, and Daryl (Upside's Partnerships Manager) who have a gift for taking awesome as pictures, and capturing the mentoring magic!