Welcoming back Youthtown Alumni

Media Release 2 August 2012

Welcoming back Youthtown Alumni

As part of their “80 Years Young” celebration, Youthtown is searching for its old boys and girls to be part of a new association - Youthtown Alumni. For over 80 years Youthtown has been a place to discover fun and adventure, learn new skills and make friends. Now the organisation is keen to welcome back its former “youth” and find ways to reconnect.

Finding these old boys and girls is challenging as part of the appeal of Youthtown in its early days was the ability to just drop in without formal registration.

Established in 1932, and originally known as Boystown then Youthtown in 1986, this well known charity is celebrating 80 years as a youth development organisation. Now Youthtown has launched their Alumni programme to recognise and celebrate its past participants.

Youthtown Chief Executive, Keith Thorpe, says: “Our Alumni is a special group of New Zealanders who share something in common – their connections and experiences of Youthtown in their youth. If you were an old boy or girl at Boystown or Youthtown, we would love to reconnect with you, to have you as an Alumni member and to have your help to find your Youthtown friends.”

“Our former Youthtowners are part of our history and to have them on board will fill in the gaps with one of our most important audiences.”

Thorpe encourages anyone who attended Boystown or Youthtown, or anyone who knows former “Youthtowners”, to spread the word, visit the website at www.youthtown.org.nz and to get in touch.

Membership to the Youthtown Alumni is free and will allow you to reunite with old friends and staff, extend your social and business circles, and discover more about Youthtown’s growth and achievements. Alumni members are able to enjoy various exclusive benefits, as well as the opportunity to participate in a number of functions planned later this year as part of the 80th birthday.

To join, you need to be 25 years plus, and to have attended Boystown or Youthtown as a child or teen in a sport, holiday or after school programme, youth squad, or camp. As an extra incentive to register quickly, Youthtown is offering some special gifts for the first 200 to join its Alumni.

The Youthtown website profiles some ‘familiar Youthtown faces’, and a wonderful collection of photos from different Youthtown events over the last 80 years. Some of these photos will be posted on the Alumni Facebook page www.facebook.com/YouthtownAlumni, seeking Alumni input to identify the people and events featured in the images.

ENDS

© Scoop Media