On Tuesday 28 June, Year 13 student Hamish Simpson was presented with a 2016 Youth Service Award by the Spreydon/Heathcote Community Board. 

Hamish Simpson Bio

Hamish has volunteered for the past three years at St Christopher's Anglican church where he has established a weekly mentoring programme, Oasis, for children from the local community. Participants learn values, understand theology, and develop leadership skills

In 2014 Hamish was a leader at Te Mapua Trust’s holiday camp for children with challenging backgrounds referred by CYF.

Also in 2014, Hamish directed Chariot Brothers, a social enterprise team which designed and produced a light-weight collapsible and low cost ‘chariot’ stretcher for use in emergency situations. The units sold in New Zealand and have achieved three national awards.

Hamish was a volunteer at Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity orphanage for six weeks of the 2015/2016 school holidays with fellow St Thomas of Canterbury College students, Ben and Tim. The trio’s experience in India in spired them to make a difference for children globally. The result was ‘Tribal’ – an interactive software app for promoting literacy and numeracy, created as a social enterprise project by a team co-led by Hamish, and launched in April 2016. The App is loaded on a USB, making the learning tool inexpensive and easy to access.

Hamish also helped draft and present a bill to the Anglican General Synod asking the Anglican Church to put pressure on the government to increase its annual refugee quota.