A volunteer driving instructor who is helping students from a Hawke’s Bay school learn to drive, started out by paying for students’ lessons.
Paul Young happened upon a pamphlet from Hastings Girls' High School looking for instructors several years ago.
Once a taxi and bus driver, Young seized the opportunity and has been teaching students the art of driving for the past two years.
He started by paying for the AA Youth Membership then he started behind the wheel of a sponsored car.
Constable Chris Leppein trained him. She says in Hastings, good driving teachers are in short supply.
“The amount of time he puts in is incredible,” she says.
“For a lot of families, they don’t have registered cars, people who are qualified to teach someone to drive… because we just teach them our bad habits,” Leppein says.
Paul Young helps 50 young women a year into a license. For student, Cassidy, who just aced getting her restricted licence, it gets her to her part time job.
“Both my parents work,” she says, adding that she tried home-made lessons but she just "ended up crying".
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