BLAKE Crosby has pivoted from managing sports programmes for children to caring for the community at vaccine clinics - and he loves it!

A Gisborne Boys' High School old boy, Blake, Ngāti Porou, completed a degree in Sports and Recreation, with a double major in exercise science/physical activity and nutrition. He graduated in 2019 and worked on sport and movement programmes for kids, before heading back to Tairāwhiti to finalise his post-graduate studies in sports management.

By June 2021 Blake, 24, was Tūranga Health’s newest lifestyle coach and health promoter. His early work involved working in kohanga and kura around the rohe, using play and sport to guide tamariki towards active, healthy lifestyles.

But then COVID-19 returned to Aotearoa and like the rest of Tūranga Health, Blake was part of the all-of-service vaccination effort. As a kaiāwhina at dozens of vaccination clinics Blake is a cheerful caring member
of the team. He prefers working at the small clinics helping awhi whānau who may be vaccine hesitant. “We receive a lot of gratitude from people, especially when we create smaller more personal and
discrete local pop-up clinics.”

He says Tūranga Health staff are close, dedicated, and the support within the organisation for new staff like himself, and whānau they care for “has been amazing.”

A LACK of good gear is seen as being a big barrier to participation in sport, so a Tairawhiti health organisation is helping to bust those barriers down.

Turanga Health in December oversaw the unveiling of new basketball hoops and backboards at Te Karaka Area, Gisborne Girls' High and Gisborne Boys' High schools, adding to those already installed at the city's Cobham and Elgin schools.

They are all part of the joint Hoops In Schools programme, co-run in the region by Basketball New Zealand and Turanga Health, and funded by Turanga Health.

And the latest hoops got a big christening with towering Tall Blacks legend Pero Cameron and Tall Fern guard Lauryn Hippolite in town to mark the occasion, taking students through their paces while they were at it.

The Tairawhiti Hoops In Schools project was founded in 2020 when Turanga Health told Basketball NZ that Cobham kids were using a bottomless bucket for a basketball hoop . . . and even that was an improvement on how they used to play “air” shots.

Turanga Health events co-ordinator Dallas Poi says it is a massive addition to the promotion of wellbeing through the sport, which has long been part of Turanga Health's programme.

Basketball is the second most popular sport for all secondary school-aged children, an age when participation in sport tends to drop away. Of the seven biggest sports in schools (football, netball, rugby, volleyball, hockey, cricket and basketball), it is one of only two to show growth in the last five years, and is on track to become the most popular of all secondary school sports.

“Basketball is such a big sport for Maori and is a great way to get tamariki and rangatahi active,” Dallas says.
Having Pero on court brought his experience not just around achieving big things in international sport, but also in making his way in the world with real mana, she added.

“We've always seen basketball as a great way to engage rangatahi in particular, and you don't get any bigger than Pero Cameron!”

Together with other Turanga Health kaiawhina, Luke Bradley delivers the programme to young people at kura throughout the region, as well as supporting Gisborne Basketball Association events.

“There is so much benefit to be gained in everything from physical fitness to developing leadership skills, so it is really rewarding work,” Luke says.

“While we do see some amazing raw talent and flair out there, we're not really looking for superstars. We're looking at improving engagement by catering for all skill levels, so all our young people can stay active and be part of the game.”

Pero Cameron says basketball is a fantastic way to reconnect with young people who have missed out on so much over the nearly two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Luke agrees.

“In recent times it has seemed that, every time we got a groove going with the young people in schools, a lockdown came and they didn't get to take part,” he says.

“That's why it was so great to have Pero and Lauryn here to see the year out. Through basketball, we were able to re-engage with tamariki and rangatahi and it was nice to get out there and see their smiles again.”
 

IF navigating Covid-19 is a journey, Pauline Gilroy has certainly been on the road!

Visiting her grandson in Australia in July 2021, the state went into lockdown. Then when she started work at Tūranga Health upon her return, she was quickly immersed in working the Māori health service's vaccination centres.

“Being thrown in the deep end and getting out to communities and marae has been fantastic, and showed me the scope that Tūranga Health represents.”

Pauline's role is service administrator. She does everything from administration and report writing to answering Turanga Health's busy telephone lines.

During her time at the vaccination clinics, however, that role expanded to replenishing vaccine supplies, disseminating the all-important vaccine clinic posters, and even making cups of tea.

“It was important to make sure whanau weren't just cared for clinically, but also in terms of making them feel safe, happy and welcome,” Pauline says.

“There is a real whānau feel, like being on the marae with heaps of aunties.”
Pauline's own aunties are from Tuhoe and Te Aupouri descent and her papakainga is at Te Kao, about halfway up Ninety Mile Beach, and Ruatahuna, the heart of Ngai Tuhoe.

“We've always been a whānau of strong wahine and that's where I get a lot of my own strength from,” Pauline says. “My grandmother was an incredible woman. She was the first Māori woman ordained in the Anglican church.”

Although Pauline once trained to be a welder, she has instead worked in a range of administration and finance roles until she got caught up in the Tairawhiti Polytechnic redundancies of 2007.

Pauline reckons her new job with Tūranga Health is a bit like her old job of 2001 when she worked with the Public Health Unit, which was rolling out changes to the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccination programme.
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“Though vaccines are the focus right now, I'm excited about the variety of work to come in the future. I love that Turanga Health’s mission statement directs them to focus on better health for all whanau and I love being able to help.”

Getting behind the Covid-19 vaccine drive is a big message and Turanga Health has brought in a big man to help deliver it.

The Tairawhiti health organisation is this week hosting New Zealand basketball great Pero Cameron and he's taking a double-play approach to his visit.

Today and tomorrow he and Tall Ferns guard Lauryn Hippolite are spending time at Gisborne and rural schools to support the Turanga Health/Basketball New Zealand programme Hoops In Schools.

Then, on Saturday, Cameron will visit Turanga Health's pop-up clinic at Blackpool Park at 10am to 11.30am to help support the vaccination programme.
At two metres tall, the former Tall Black and now Tall Blacks coach will be hard to miss.

“It's not often you see a size 17 shoe wandering around our clinics so Pero will bring a big presence to that space,” Turanga Health events co-ordinator Dallas Poi says.

“He brings so much experience, not just around achieving big things in international sport, but also on making his way in the world with real mana.

“We've always seen basketball as a great way to engage rangatahi in particular, and you don't get any bigger than Pero Cameron!”

For Cameron, basketball was a way to reconnect with young people who had missed out on so much over the nearly two years of the pandemic.

“It's the same with the vaccine,” he said. “We are an active people so, apart from saving lives, it is a way to reclaim our freedoms, to be together and enjoy the things we are passionate about.”

Widely seen as the greatest international basketballer New Zealand has produced, Cameron played for the Tall Blacks a record 227 times (1993-2010) — 170 as captain — was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to basketball, and in 2017 became the first New Zealander inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

For 14 years he lived on Australia's Gold Coast, commuting to fulfil his roles as Tall Blacks assistant coach (2011-2019) and interim head coach (2019-2021).

But in October he returned to New Zealand to be full-time head coach of the Tall Blacks, who he plans to lead to the 2023 FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Cameron has also taken on the role of basketball director for the Taranaki Steelformers Mountain Airs, allowing him to reconnect with former Turanga Health senior staffer and Rising Suns legend Dwayne “Tama” Tamatea, who relocated to Taranaki last year.

“Aotearoa is a small country and the world of basketball is even smaller, so it's no surprise those two are good friends,” Poi says.

“During Pero's visit, Tama will be taking him around the schools and clinic so it will be great to have our old friend back with us . . . if only for a short while.”

The Blackpool Park pop-up already has a point of difference in that the park has tracks running through it, so the Tu Mai collective is able to bring in the Wa165 steam train for a bit of whānau fun.
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Turanga Health's other weekend clinics are all from 10am to 2pm on Sunday and include the drive-through at Harry Barker Reserve; the Waikohu clinic at Currie Place (Te Karaka), and the drive-through at Patutahi Hall.