Meet Dave Lockwood - Westfield Local Heroes 2021

Opening Camp Adair to locals

YMCA North
Passionate. Community-minded. Innovator

Dave Lockwood has rolled up his sleeves to give South Auckland school students an opportunity to enjoy the awesome school camps that other Kiwis take for granted.

As outdoors group manager at YMCA North, Dave decided to change the fact that schools closest to the iconic Camp Adair cannot afford to use the facility that generations of Auckland children have enjoyed.

His first success was a camp for Edmund Hillary School in Papakura, which had not had an outdoors camp for 15 years.

“My role is to serve the local community and enable,” says Dave, who was born and raised in the Counties Manukau region and has spent most of his working life there.

A significant win for Dave was his game-changing partnership with the Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation to host 1,000 students from 24 South Auckland intermediate schools at one-week sports camps at Camp Adair. “You can achieve great things through community partnerships,” says Dave.

He is humbled to be nominated as a Westfield Local Hero. Making a difference brings me an enormous sense of joy. If we can help the children in our region in some small way to achieve their goals and dreams, then we have done our job.”

Westfield Local Heroes are nominated and voted for by their communities, with the three top finalists per Westfield centre each awarded a $10,000 grant for their affiliated organisation. YMCA North will use its funds to subsidise the cost of the sports camp.

For further information on the Westfield Local Heroes program, click here