Christmas comes very early ...

The 2011 Shotover Jet Christmas Spectacular raised $10,730 for Youth Booth, and Shotover Jet general manager Clark Scott (front) arrived on Wednesday to hand over the proceeds to youth workers (from left) Jacqui Moir, Fi Sawers, Nathan Baxter and Laura Cross. Mr Scott said it was great to "continue supporting the youth of the region", a cause he said Shotover Jet had been helping over the past five or six years. Ms Moir said Youth Booth was "extremely grateful" for the donation, which would go towards paying for recreation programmes, with a possibility of subsidising certain programmes to enable more participation.