Gidday from New Zealand! As a Father who helped build the first U.S. National Camp and, two years later, pioneered the first New Zealand Camp with my colleagues – and fellow Fathers, Jan Battaerd and Pete Boyd – I write to provide all Dads a look into why GO-FIRST can be good growing up and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g adventure for your Sons and Daughters.

Before getting too far into this, though, let me advise you that I am not a Surf Dad or someone with a huge experience in Fire and Rescue. I have done my fair share of public service as a Wellington City Councillor and a senior political minder to our Labour National Party leaders, and I loved growing up in rugby and will gladly take my place in any scrum – but I write this for every Dad, whatever your background, your neighborhood and however things might be going with your children’s Mum, at the moment.

GO-FIRST is a solid program for your Son or Daughter because it will take them through the some of the most important lessons they can learn about safety, service and leadership in a way that also is fun, challenging and very different from their daily school, leisure or friends. It engages them in strong values, strong skills and strong problem-solving situations in ways that they earn memorable Life Lessons by their own stretching and sweating – and, after the training sessions are over and they catch their breath, with some good laughs and real pride.

Because my parents formed a union of China and Italy here in New Zealand, I have always been keen to have Mario and Francesca learn about the world as they learn about themselves and get a reckoning for what they enjoy and want to do in life. So, another great thing about GO-FIRST is that its built on a global classroom platform – where the students learn the most neutral civic language of life-saving and public safety and health with a world-wide range of teammates and mentors.

The GO-FIRST Camps Mario and I have participated in featured students and mentors from Asia, Hawai`i, Chile, Mexico – and our Maori communities, along with Chicago, Washington, DC, New York, California, South Carolina and many other neighborhoods and regions.

In today’s fractious world, learning how to protect, respect and celebrate life with multicultural teammates and mentors is very special and valuable school work.

Both Mario and Francesca are drawn to projects and play beyond the oceans, rivers, mountains, deserts and snow summits your Sons and Daughters will experience in their GO-FIRST Camps. So, it may be that, like for Mario and Francesca, GO-FIRST is the closest thing they will experience to a First Responder training and response situation at sea, up a high hill or in the middle of a trauma center. But that’s why you want them to do this: they are going to learn some things and be inspired by values you want them to have for everything that the world might bring their way, no matter where and when. And you want them to learn and live leadership and service, so they know they have what it takes for both.

Mario’s Coda

For 10 days across the Northern Island of New Zealand, from the West surf beaches of the Auckland Region to Hicks Bay on the Eastern Cape, I joined my father and a team of global kids and coaches to help launch GO-FIRST in New Zealand. You can see some of our work and adventure on this website, at the New Zealand section.

Doing everything from running an Inflatable Rescue Boat in 10 foot surf to studying Ecological Sciences in an environmental reserve to hunting eels by moonlight on the Hicks Bay Marae before doing Lion Foundation helicopter surf rescues the next morning, I never wanted to come home!

I am very proud of the New Zealander’s ability to go abroad from this small country and take on the biggest challenges, with dignity, determination and, usually, solid results. You see this in Sir Edmund Hillary and our America’s Cup Teams, for example.

One of the many reasons I enjoy participating in GO-FIRST is that it gives me a strong opportunity to train to be a New Zealander.

Another strong showing of New Zealanders is our hospitality. I hope some of you reading this will come to one of our Camps to enjoy our beautiful and brave country.