Bless Groome recently won the Regional Youth Enterprise Scheme and took out a few other awards on the night as well!

Westland High School are very proud to be able to share that Bless Groome one of our wonderful Year 12 students is the 2023 West Coast Regional winner for the annual Youth Enterprise Scheme (YES).

Bless had a taste of YES in 2021 when she was the artist for a Greymouth High School team. This year she was keen to work as a ‘sole trader’ and after hours of hard work, commitment and a huge amount of support from the local YES personnel and South Island manager Regan Powell she made an almost clean sweep of the awards at the Ceremony on Monday evening. Bless was awarded the Excellence in Innovation Award, The Papa Taiao Excellence in Regenerative Enterprise Award and as already mentioned the YES West Coast overall winner 2022 Award which included a one thousand dollar scholarship for Massey University - should she decide to enroll at Massey.

On December 6th 2022, Bless will travel to Wellington to compete in the National finals.

Bless’s product - An LGBTQIA+ card game set, incorporating Te Reo was indeed innovative, and as her sales to date prove there is a need. On advice from the YES mentors, Bless emailed schools the width and breadth of Aotearoa to promote her product. As a result of this marketing strategy, social media presence and other support, Bless has sold nearly 200 packs of cards.

Bless is to be congratulated for her determination throughout this process and on behalf of the Westland High School community we wish her the best of luck at the National finals.

If you would like to buy a pack of cards you can contact the school office.