Councillor to Make Coaching Calls

9 OCTOBER 2012
For Immediate Release

Silver Ferns selector and Hamilton City Councillor Margaret Forsyth is confident her Waikato Celebrities team can net an historic victory in a charity netball match in Hamilton this weekend.

Councillor Forsyth, who played for the Silver Ferns between 1979 and 1987, coaches the Waikato Celebrities side for a fundraising charity match against a Parliamentary Netball team on Saturday, 13 October, at Hamilton Girls High School, to support Alzheimer’s Waikato.

The Waikato Celebrities team includes Waikato Regional Councillor Paula Southgate, alongside Anne Macindoe – wife of Hamilton West MP Tim Macindoe – Creative Waikato Chief Executive Sarah Nathan and Waikato Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Sandra Perry. The Parliamentary Netball team includes Hamilton-based MP Sue Moroney and fellow Labour MP Louisa Wall, also a former Silver Fern. “This is a great cause, and it’s tremendous some of our local personalities have agreed to be part of the match to show their support,” says Councillor Forsyth. “It will be an exciting and fun match, and I expect there will be some sore bodies the next day.”

The netball match is part of a charity double-header, with a rugby fixture between the Parliamentary Rugby team and a Waikato Celebrities side scheduled for later the same day as a curtain-raiser to the Waikato vs Hawke’s Bay Ranfurly Shield challenge at the Council-owned Waikato Stadium.

The netball match begins at 11.30, with a gold coin entry, and spectators will have a chance to mingle with the players after the match. To watch the rugby clash, spectators will need a ticket for the Ranfurly Shield challenge.

An after-match function following the rugby clash will be held at Hamilton Old Boys clubrooms, next to Waikato Stadium, from 5.30pm. The after-match event will include a charity auction, from 7.30pm, with items to be auctioned including a gliding experience, weekends away in the Thames and Coromandel area, and a cruise on Lake Taupo.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>