Gallipoli Youth Award winners trip 'fantastic and memorable'

Mt Albert Grammar year 13 pupil Spencer McGarry was the inaugural winner of the RNZRSA/American Field Service Gallipoli Youth Award.

His essay on his grandfather, an ANZAC who fought at Gallipoli, earned him return tickets to Turkey and six weeks in a high school there. He is also participated the New Zealand ANZAC Day service on Gallipoli, reading The Ode to the Fallen during the Dawn Service.

Turkish high school pupil Gizem Gencel was the inaugural winner in her country. Both wrote of their grandfathers in the Gallipoli campaign.

Both essays earned return tickets to Turkey/New Zealand. Each staying with the others' family, attending each others' school and participating in ANZAC Day commemorations in New Zealand and Turkey.

Spencer walked the battlefields on Gallipoli. “I walked over Hill 60, ground my Granddad fought on 94 years ago spending a whole day touring around Peninsula with my host family. Chunuk Bair is my favourite memorial. From there you get an amazing view of the whole Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles.”

He also shared in the “18 Mart”, the Turkish equivalent of ANZAC Day, commemorations with his hosts, attending a ceremony at the 18 Mart Stadyumu attended by the Turkish President, watching a waterfront Turkish Air Force flypast and being given a personal tour of the Turkish Navy ship F-242 TCG FAITH by one of the navigators. In the evening he watched a lantern parade through Canakkale and a massive fireworks display.

Spencer said, “ANZAC Day was scary but so moving. I had a live broadcast to do at the ANZAC Cove Dawn Service but managed to answer every question put to me. It was very cold. I was shivering as I didn't have a sleeping bag or blanket.

“We then walked, with thousands of others, for 40 minutes to Lone Pine. The service was very good and, as the sun was out in force, I managed to get warm! Not much time to spare between Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair but I managed to get onto the VIP bus.

“The service was so awesome. There were so many Kiwis and Aussies there. The service was relayed onto four large screens and, despite having to speak from a different spot to that rehearsed, I didn’t fluff The Ode.

Spencer said his time in Turkey and on Gallipoli was “fantastic and memorable”. He also participated in Turkish and French commemorations on 24 April. Of course he had language problems but help was at hand. He enjoyed school and the “touristy” trips he had such as to the site of the ancient City of Troy.

He was grateful to the RNZRSA and the AFS Cultural Exchange Programme for making his visit possible.

The Gallipoli Youth Award is open to year 12 & 13 pupils. The AFS website says, “The award is to celebrate the spirit of ANZAC and New Zealand's bond of brotherhood with Turkey.”