Leading from the front issuu

UNDERSTANDING ISSUES
FOR THOSE AT RISK
by paul trass
admin manager, mareanui rugby & sports association
I first met Pat Magill back in 1983 at a YMCA annual
conference when he and I were presenting papers. Pat’s
presentation was “The Pub With No Beer” concept that
the YMCA was creating, a concept that was to provide a
place for young people to call their own, like a Pub, but
without alcohol.
In the late 1980s I moved to Napier and attended the
Hawke’s Bay Sports Awards in this wonderful facility
called Michael’s Place, very modern, comfortable and
upmarket. I later found out this was Pat’s Pub with No
Beer.
Michaels Place showed Pat’s concern for our disadvantaged
youth and his desire to do something that was
based on the ideas of these young people’, rather than
some academic or council officer’s solution.
A few years later I was lecturing at EIT and we ran a
programme at Mongrel Mob headquarters in Onekawa.
For a white South Island boy it was initially quite intimidating
but early on in the week this guy wandered in
saying “Hi” to all and it was of course, Pat.
He had been working with the gang for some time to
make sure that they got a fair go from the system. The
course ran there for six months and it was interesting to
get to know the mobsters and their partners as people.
As the course went on it became apparent that they were
very intelligent and capable people who had opted to
become gang members for a sense of connection, or to
define a new sense of who they are which was not being
met by the education or community system.
Pat understood the issues of those at risk in our communities
and has not been afraid to challenge politicians
and those in power to do something about it. I’m sure
the Napier Pilot City Trust, set up to make Napier a Child
Friendly City, was based on Pat’s vision for the city.
At the Maraenui Rugby and Sports AGM who should
be there but Pat Magill and you learn from members that
he has been a supporter since the club was formed 40
years ago.
When the club was hit by the recent Napier floods, at
the lunch break for the first working bee, a car pulled up
and his sister delivered a pile of cherries and lots of ice
cream with a simple message, “These are from Pat”. He
was in hospital at the time. I’m sure that there are a heap
of community organisations who would say the same,
“Yep, Pat was on our committee a while back”.
At 90 he still drives this vision and he is never afraid
to mix it up with anyone from the local mob chief to the
Prime Minister to get things done.
Above: All keen supporters of Maraenui Rugby and Sports Association — Nadeen Wiparata, Maxine Boag and Pat.
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Maraenui – by whānau for whānau, anything is possible