The 'Longest Day' on Saturday 8th April and the following Graduation Dinner at the RSA marked the end of another successful CACTUS course at Manawatu College.

At CACTUS, participants go through an intensive fitness and skills programme, benefiting from proximity to the great outdoors. Courses run for eight weeks parallel to school terms, extending the participants physical, social and character development through team building activities.

The programme’s objectives are to grow self-discipline and strength of character, encourage physical and mental development and wellbeing, reinforce positive social skills and attitudes, and develop an ability to break through personal limitations and achieve goals.

CACTUS ran on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 6:30 am to 8:30 am. The physical activity was concluded with a cooked breakfast, before students got ready for school. The programme is in its fourth year at Manawatu College and participation from both staff and students was strong throughout the 8 weeks.

The programme ended with the 'Longest Day' challenge, where the students were up at 6am completing physical challenges to  showcase their growth and teamwork skills.  

The Graduation Dinner, held at the Foxton RSA for the graduating students and their families followed the Longest Day and was a celebration and recognition of all of the hard work that has gone into CATCUS 2017.  

This year, the Manawatu Area Commander Inspector Sarah Stewart presented a new award to one of the students.  'The Manawatu Area Commanders Leadership Award' was created in order to recognize a student in the programme who had demonstrated outstanding leadership skills on the course.  This was presented to year 12 student Paige Wright.  She received a plaque to recognize her efforts as well as a year long mentoring programme with a Police leader to mentor her and prepare her for future leadership opportunities.  Inspector Stewart explained, "The most important thing about being a leader is taking care of your people, and Paige does that well."

It takes a huge number of people and effort to deliver this amazing  programme to the students.  Many thanks must go to Steve Dunn and the Foxton Police, Nathan Webb, the Volunteer Firefighters, the Fitness Instructors, and to Kath and her team in the kitchen for the wonderful breakfasts.