Variety Trillian Bash Visits Marlborough Schools

Variety Trillian Bash Visits Marlborough Schools

Magic shows and inspirational talks mark five-school day

Tuesday started off as a normal day for rural youngster Sophie Frost, who was waiting at her gate for the school bus with her mum when the bright-yellow Naki Boyz fire truck pulled up, and driver Nigel Williams offered to take her to school.

The Bash convoy stopped at the main junction to regroup, letting the small school bus through en route to the 40-pupil school, and by the time Sophie arrived as part of the convoy she’d become a school celebrity.

Kids at these small rural schools rarely get to see a parade, a live act or a real magician, and the Variety Trillian Bash turns their day a little bit magical, even when there is no major grant to give away.

The magic – and good-old south-island hospitality – continued through Havelock School, Canvastown School and on to Rai Valley School, where the principal made the mistake of paying for a view of the school from the top of the 30-story Fishpot truck ladder.

The 1961 ex-LA ladder truck often takes mayors and teachers aloft for a donation to the charity, but its captain – Peter Drummond – equally often solicits donations for a descent with a difference, via a soaking from one of the other Variety Bash fire tenders.

This time principal Angela Sloane got her view, before being comprehensively soaked by hoses wielded by Pukekohe resident Todd Forsyth, who runs the ‘Hydrant Hopper’ team.

Ms Sloane took it in good part, before hosting a Q&A between kids and bashers, then a talk by young Bash fundraiser Mark Wilson, about not letting bullying or other hurdles get in your way. The former Olympian and Variety Gold Heart Scholarship winner lives with cerebral palsy, and now helps raise funds for other children in need of a hand, and gives the occasional inspirational talk.

The Variety Trillian Bash continues on 16th via Brightwater and Wakefield Schools to Murchison Area School and on to Westport and Greymouth, before heading to Methven on 17th, and finishing in Timaru on 18th – by which time it will have visited 21 schools and an estimated 4000 children.

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2016 Variety Trillian Bash route
March 15: Portage to Nelson via Linkwater School, Havelock School, Canvastown School, Rai Valley School, Hira School, Clifton Terrace School, Auckland Point School. BUCKET SHAKE AT NELSON
March 16: Nelson to Blackball via Auckland Point School, Brightwater School, Wakefield School, Murchison Area School, Westport, Greymouth.
March 17: Greymouth to Lake Coleridge via Cobden School, Blackball School TREE PLANTING, St Patricks School, Dobson School, Lake Brunner School
March 18: Methven to Timaru via Methven School, Rakaia School, Chertsey School, Fairton School, Asburton Borough School, $6325 GRANT TO ASHBURTON COLLEGE STUDENT LEARNING SUPPORT UNIT ending at the Caroline Bay Sound Shell: BIKES FOR KIDS will be presented to children at several schools today

ENDS

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