Lily Simmons-Donaldson (16) won’t be running for MP anytime soon. Photo: SUPPLIED

Teenager Lily Simmons-Donaldson has already been identified as a future Maori leader and has had a taste of local body politics, but don’t expect to see her heading to Parliament anytime soon.

After being named a Te Awe Business Network “future leader”, the 17-year-old was invited to visit our nation’s legislature — she wasn’t that impressed.

“I got to sit in on Question Time, on the seats above. It’s ridiculous, they’re all like animals,” she laughs.

“They yell over each other and the Speaker has to try and control it, it must be so hard to do that. You can see MPs texting on their phones and searching on the internet to find out information to use against the others.”

The bubbly teen then decided to join the Wellington City Youth Council – sparking plans to build ‘adult playgrounds’.

“It was so funny, and apparently we are doing more work on it soon,” she giggles.

She’s the youngest youth member of the council.

Born in Wellington with Maori heritage from Ngati Porou, she was brought up with the Maori language and culture from a very young age.

“My Mum and Grandmother are very Maori orientated, and taught me the language pretty much from when I was born.”

She spent six years at Newtown School in an ‘emersion class’, where all coursework and teaching is in Te Reo Maori.

Lily says that really helped her grab the language, but moving to intermediate school was a shock.

“I didn’t learn Maori there. I had to get used to not speaking it all the time as I was in a English speaking class,”

“It was different, but fun.”

She’s passionate about her culture, and tutors Te Reo Maori in her spare time.

“It’s part of my heritage, which I place a strong importance on. I’ve grown up learning Maori, and I think it’s a privilege to be bilingual.”

At school, she is part of the Senior Maori leadership group which focuses on providing positive role models to young Maori students and promoting maori language and tikanga.

The prefect from Wellington East Girl’s College has also provided voice-overs for educational Maori-language websites, has passed NCEA Maori courses with Excellence, and has lead Kapa Haka groups.

A self-proclaimed ‘nerdy child’, Lily began studying NCEA Level 1 when she was Year 9. High school students don’t typically begin NCEA coursework until Year 11.

“I decided I wanted to be cool, so I only read the big books in the library. My sister’s friends used to be really impressed, but I didn’t really understand what I was reading,”

She’s naturally cheeky, and admits to playing tricks on her teachers.

“You can answer exam questions in Maori, which makes it really fun. I that in the French papers and my teacher couldn’t understand it. It was funny,” she laughs again.

While Lily admits she doesn’t always complete her homework on time, she recognises the importance of taking school seriously.

“You have to try hard the whole year, or you will regret it. I failed a history assignment because I didn’t put in enough effort, but was enough lucky to get a re-sit to pass.”

Wellington East Girl’s College deputy principal Ann Greenaway says Lily is a curious student, who has earned the respect of all staff and students.

“She is a motivated, enthusiastic student who has a positive approach to her learning. A very inquiring mind and an interest in people as well as learning new things,”

“She is also able to walk in two worlds, Maori and Pakeha with apparent ease and this is something very special for someone so young.”

The Te Reo Maori/English fluent student has also been learning a third language – French.

Outside of school, Lily volunteers at the Mary Potter Hospice, is a supervisor at a Countdown supermarket, and practices athletics.

Looking ahead to the future, she’s narrowing down her university subject choices but hasn’t yet chosen where to study.

“I want to do either genetics counselling or linguistics, it’ll be based my results from biology and chemistry at least halfway though this year.”

As the interview draws to a close, Lily leaves me with her favourite Maori passage.

“Te manu e kai ana te miro,
Nona te ngahere.
Te manu e kai ana te matauranga.
Nona te ao.“

Kyle Wadsworth is a Witt Journalism Graduand.

And when my good friend Modern Maiden blogged about her ’30 things to do before I’m 30′ list, I realised I had no nifty goals to live by!
Let’s face it; this boy isn’t getting any younger, and there’s a whole world out there. If I had to write a list, It’d be pretty similar to Miss Maidens. So below is a slightly-revised version, of most things I want to achieve before i’m 25:

● Write a hand written love letter √
● Actually post it √
● Do something that terrifies you.
● Introduce yourself to a stranger √
● Fall in love √
● Get your heart broken √
● Fail at something that’s important to you √
● Travel, explore new places and meet new people.
● Be a volunteer for a charity organisation √
● Plant your own garden.
● Make a gift for someone, a gift they will remember for the rest of their life √ (fingers crossed)
● Experience unrequited love √
● Find yourself a favourite tree to think under.
● Learn a skill from your grandparents – like knitting or pickling.
● Learn a different language.
● Perfect the art of Sunday morning pancakes.
● Draw your parents a picture, like you used to when you were younger.
● Jump from a high height.
● Buy sexy underwear.
● Quit a job that makes you unhappy  √
● Start a job you love.
● Design your own signature food dish.
● Stay up and watch the sunrise.
● Master the art of playing pool.
● Create an exercise plan  √
● Actually stick to it.
● Solve a Rubix Cube.
● Go wine tasting at a vineyard, not the supermarket.
● Learn a new word every day for a year.
● Spend the day with a child. Take them to the park, blow bubbles, and remember the joy of colouring in.

What would your list be?

All the best for the new year!

Kyle Wadsworth

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 6 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Frank Lowry.

When Frank Lowry catches a glimpse of New Plymouth school children playing outside on a summer’s day, their faces shaded by the wide brims of their floppy sunhats, he’s entitled to a glow of satisfaction.

During the 90s the former Taranaki Cancer Society executive officer oversaw education programmes and health campaigns, including the Shady School Policy, designed to keep kids safe in the sun.

“There are so many cancers that can be avoided and prevented by early detection, and we’ve done a lot of work keeping people safe from the sun, especially in the schools of New Zealand,” says the 83-year-old.

“You only have to pass schools in New Zealand now and children are out in the playground with hats on.”

Lowry should actually have been putting his feet up after a decade of service to the Christchurch Cancer Society when he arrived in Taranaki in 1990 with his wife Miriam.

But his retirement plans didn’t come to fruition.

“My wife and I came up here [New Plymouth] to retire for various reasons, family being one of them, and a change of scene from Canterbury, but the Cancer Society wouldn’t let me retire,” Lowry says grinning.

Instead, the society wanted him to help get the Taranaki Centre into its own building and expand its services, the job he had just done for the Canterbury- West Coast division.

Twenty years later, these goals have largely been achieved and Lowry couldn’t be prouder.

“When I look around here, I have a certain amount of satisfaction and I believe we’ve gone in the right direction,” says Lowry who recently celebrated the Taranaki Cancer Society’s 75th anniversary with former colleagues.

The organisation began in 1929 when the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign opened in Wellington, and the Taranaki branch opened in 1937.

Now known as the Cancer Society of New Zealand, it is the largest non- government funder of cancer research in the country.

Lowry had spent 20 years working as a medical laboratory technologist in the hospital laboratory service when in the 1980s he decided he wanted to make a bigger difference in healthcare.

“I just had a feeling that I wanted to break away and be able to set my own strategy on how I could contribute to the health and wellbeing of people,” he says.

In Christchurch the Cancer Society was advertising for an executive officer, and Lowry knew it was the perfect position for him.

After being appointed, he was given the task of bringing the Christchurch- based division up to date with the rest of New Zealand.

“In some respects I really started off from scratch,” remembers Lowry.

“My strategy was to bring their division up to standard. I think we just about succeeded.

“I had 10 years in the post, and there was a matter of getting them on to a realistic property, mainly to house cancer patients and their families when they came to Christchurch for cancer treatment.”

Lowry had just one volunteer by his side when he began work with the Christchurch branch, but by March 1986 he had five staff and about 350 volunteers.

With their help, he developed a resource centre, an after-hours support phone service, cancer education programmes for schools, clubs, doctors and nurses, and a driving service to take patients to the Oncology Treatment Centre.

Lowry says while the society’s staff are important to keep day-to-day operations moving, it’s the volunteers that make the advancements possible.

“I must say when I’m talking about these things that we’ve accomplished, that it’s the volunteers that were beside us in all these things. They were the workforce.”

When the Taranaki centre’s president (the late) Kingsley Fletcher heard of Lowry’s impending retirement in 1990 he offered him the position of executive officer.

“He said to me ‘Frank you’re not going to retire, we’d like you to help get us into our own building and get the programme expanded’.”

Three years on from his appointment, the society bought a property on Lorna St, and thanks to an interest-free loan, from the TSB Bank, the house was renovated into a cancer centre.

“When I look back to 1993 when this property was purchased, some of those people are not with us now. However, we think of them with feelings of gratitude, as they played their part at that time. We supported each other, it was a team effort.”

In 1992, Lowry became a founding trustee of the Taranaki Hospice Foundation, to advocate for a hospice run independently of the Taranaki District Health Board.

“I had some hospice experience in Christchurch and for obvious reasons the Cancer Society has always been a big supporter of hospice.

“I wouldn’t say it was a battle, but we had to convince the Midland Regional Health Authority, about the necessity of setting up a standalone hospice.”

This year, the Taranaki Hospice celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Lowry retired from the Taranaki Cancer Society at the end of 1993, only to join the ranks of its volunteers.

Mary Bernet, cancer survivor and society volunteer since the 1970s, describes Lowry as a “rock”.

“He was always there and took our meetings, brought information to us, and supported us,” says Bernet who was a founding member of the Breast Cancer Support Group.

She’s worked with Lowry on and off for about 20 years, and says his confident charm is the secret to his success.

“He’s just so loyal and is the same Frank no matter where you meet him, whether it’s in the street or the Cancer Society rooms.”

Bernet believes these qualities led to Lowry being awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the society in 2000.

Not that Lowry sees the award as his alone.

“It was really an acceptance on behalf of the society,” he says.

“When I was at Government House and Sir Michael Hardie Boys pinned on my medal, I was visualising all the volunteers around me that I had worked with.”

Taranaki Cancer Society branch manager Jenny Henderson says Lowry is simply “tireless”.

“He will keep going until he can’t keep going any more. That’s just the kind of guy he is, he’s a real community-minded person.”

While Lowry doesn’t do much work for the society these days, Henderson says he helps out when he has the time.

“I don’t think he ever really retired, he just didn’t get paid any more. He kept going, and that’s pretty amazing.”

Lowry, who is now chairman of the Taranaki/Whanganui Association of Retirement Village Residents, says the reasoning behind his “get up and go” attitude to life is simple.

“If I stop, I might not get out of bed, so I’ve got to keep going,” Lowry jokes.

- © Fairfax NZ News

New Plymouth’s new parking system goes live today.

Council regulatory services manager Simon Pickford says volunteers will be available to help anyone struggling with the new machines.

The new meters will accept only coins on launch, followed by credit card and mobile phone payments before the end of the year.

Pickford says parking wardens will be lenient in the first few days as people get used to the new system, and parking fees will remain the same.

- Newstalk ZB Taranaki

Organisers of this year’s Toast Martinborough have promised to have more substantial food available for drinkers.

Rachel Fletcher, general manager says they will not be offering the usual festival-style food

“All of the restaurants that have partnered with the vineyard provide restruant quality food in catering conditions,”

“So it’s not that you’re getting the standard run-of-the-mill food, it really is resturant quality matched with some fabulous wines so you’re really getting that wine and food experience.”

Over ten-thousand tickets for the wine and food event sold out within five hours.

Toast Martinborough will be held this Sunday, from 10am to 6pm.

- Newstalk ZB Manawatu

Ten thousand people are set to attend the annual Toast Martinborough festival this weekend.

General manager Rachel Fletcher says the town is starting to get excited about the annual wine and food fair.

“As the days draw closer to the festival, we se more and more people coming into town and everyone’s looking pretty excited.”

“It’s a great chance for people to catchup with people they haven’t seen in a while, I know that a lot of people travel here from all over the country to make this a yearly catchup or reunion of friends and family, it’s a brilliant vibe.”

Guests to this year’s festival will be screened for ‘alcohol preloading’ before entry, and Police have promised a greater presence following complaints last year.

The Demon Energy Biggest, Baddest Monster Truck will put on a two-hour show at Yarrow Stadium on December 8.

Stadium manager Julie Johns says the tour will ring back-flipping motorcross riders and a five-tonne truck jumping 50 feet though the air.

Tickets start from $15 and are available now from the TSB Showplace.

- Newstalk ZB Taranaki