Variety Trillian Bash Hands Over Keys to Sunshine Coach

Variety Trillian Bash Hands Over Keys to Sunshine Coach

Tiny Rural School was using teacher’s car

The 30 crews and 180 participants of the Variety Trillian Bash today looked on as Ohakune resident Kandy Mott handed the keys to a Sunshine Coach to the principal of tiny Ngamatea School. Its nine pupils live over a widely scattered rural area and the teacher has been collecting some from Fishers Track in her own car.

She says the Ford minibus will be a godsend.

That was just the first of a series of give-aways large and small as the crews wound their way south via the back roads, donating Canon printers to Mangaweka School and laptops for learning to Shannon school as part of a joint venture with the Warehouse.

Along the way they stopped at back-coutry kindergartens and rural gates alike, handing out balloons and toothbrushes, books and bracelets with the help of characters from the Cat in the Hat courtesy Ohakune’s Seuss Subbus team, Scooby Doo from Ne Plymouth and Elmo, who dispensed hugs aplenty at every stop.

Other kids clambered on the Fishpot Café LA Fire truck, and shrieked with delight at Shannon, where the school allowed the FOAM fire engine to crank up its hoses to foam a lucky few.

The teams have each paid a large donation to take part, and as well as shaking fund-raising buckets along the way, they see remote areas of the countryside, occasionally private farm roads opened by generous land-holders, and get to meet some of the recipients – kids who’ve occasionally been dealt a raw hand given a lift for a day.

As one excited lad said as the teams rolled out of Mangaweka School, “This has been the best day ever!”

Tuesday sees the convoy park round the steps of Parliament to explain their mission to John Key, before heading to Masterton, stopping at schools and hospitals along the way, updating facebook as they go to keep folk posted of their progress and encourage exta kids to drop in at their scheduled stops.

Variety Trillian Bash Contacts

Media Statement

Variety - The Children's Charity levels the playing field for disadvantaged Kiwi kids; and with around 265,000 Kiwi kids growing up in poverty our work is essential.

Every year we help over 10,000 local children - we meet their unmet health and education needs providing them with brighter futures.

We fund a broad range of requirements, from providing the basics of life, to much-needed medical equipment, to life-changing mobility needs, to innovative educational initiatives.

We work alongside schools, agencies and the government, tackling child poverty so the Kiwi kids who urgently need our life-changing assistance are set up to reach their full potential in life.
To keep up with what the Variety Bash teams are doing through the year, log on to
www.bashnz.co.nz.
facebook.com/VarietyNZBash
www.variety.org.nz

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