Rotary Hutt Valley Elated - Their Billy Graham Awarded NZOM

Rotary Hutt City is elated that our Billy Graham has been awarded a Member of NZ Order of Merit for services to youth and the community In The Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Billy founded the Naenae Youth Charitable Trust in 2006, through which he opened the Naenae Boxing Academy to provide a positive outlet and strategies for at-risk and disadvantaged young men in the community.

He has continued to drive the development of his Boxing Academy initiative, with the establishment of the Billy Graham Youth Foundation and Boxing Academies in Cannons Creek, Mid-Canterbury, Wairarapa, Te Awamutu and West Auckland. He has trained young boxers that have come through the Naenae Academy to be leaders in two of his other academies. More recently he has focused on training young women, many from vulnerable backgrounds, having sourced female trainers and mentors to run separate classes to help develop life skills and character. Having been Patron of the New Zealand Police Recruit Wing 269 in 2011,
Billy has developed the relationship between his Boxing Academies and the New Zealand Police. Police College recruits train with young men and women from the Naenae and Cannons Creek Boxing Academies. In 2017 the Billy Graham Youth Foundation was the second organisation in New Zealand to be awarded the White Ribbon Business Accreditation.