Programme Gains Speed With New Bus

Tuesday, 12 October 2010:

Community Swim, the cornerstone project of the John Walker Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation, has recently gained new momentum with the addition of a fourth bus to transport a growing number of Manukau youngsters to their swim lessons.

The ground-breaking initiative that provides FREE lessons to year 3, 4 and 5 pupils in Manukau, is a partnership between the Foundation and Manukau Leisure Services, which in the last financial year provided 72,000 FREE lessons to more than 10,200 students across 70 Manukau schools.

Chairman Sir John Walker says it is thanks to the generous support of The Lion Foundation of around $530,000 a year, which meets the cost of swim lessons for the students, plus the four buses, that has enabled the Community Swim programme to gain widespread recognition.

But the four strongly branded FIND YOUR FIELD OF DREAMS buses are widely visible transporting youngsters across Manukau for other Foundation activities. Counties Manukau Sport use them to transport children to after-school Primary Sport and Secondary Sport programmes. Manukau Leisure Services, use them for the AMP’d programme and other sporting and community groups which require assistance with transport.

And while at the recent Super City elections he gained a seat on the new Auckland Council, alongside former Manukau Mayor Len Brown who helped launch the Foundation back in May 2008, Sir John says there will be no rush to extend the work of FIND YOUR FIELD OF DREAMS beyond Manukau.

“I’m sure Mayor Len and the new council will have more important issues to tackle,” he says. “Also our Trustees have pledged that we will remain focused on providing increased sporting opportunities for young people in Manukau for the next two years at least, a decision I am very comfortable with.”

Caption: Sir John Walker, flanked by Wymondley Road School youngsters in Otara attending another Foundation programme, Primary Sport, delivered by Counties Manukau Sport, greet the arrival of the 4th Community Swim Bus.

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