Sporting Legends Rally Behind Cyclone Fundraiser

The Milford Foundation has today released new tickets for a star-studded fundraising evening, to help support several regional New Zealand sports clubs and projects, directly affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The evening, Burgers, Beers and Brilliant Sportspeople hosted by Kiwi icon Jason Gunn gives guests a chance to rub shoulders with more than 25 New Zealand sporting legends, participate in a live auction fundraiser and enjoy an interactive panel hosted by ‘Double All Black’, Jeff Wilson. Kiwi music great, Harry Lyon will also give a special ‘unplugged’ performance.

The damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle continues to cause significant disruption to regional sport in the Hawkes Bay, Gisborne, and Northland. Many sports grounds, facilities, and equipment were damaged or destroyed, with some organisations struggling to fund the resources necessary for games to go ahead or communities to continue to gather for special events.

The Milford Foundation’s special event on Monday the 8 May aims to raise $300,000, with every dollar spent on tickets and auction items going towards the goal, in keeping with the Foundation’s promise. The Foundation has also committed to partnering with each project to ‘see it through to the end’ and will continue to fundraise beyond the event.

The current projects identified via outreach to the impacted communities are:

• Kaeo, Otamatea, Tomarata, Eastern Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto, Onerahi Rugby Clubs (Far North): Milford Foundation will provide financial aid to the club to support repairs to club room infrastructure and replace essential rugby team and training equipment
• Waka Ama Club (Gisborne): Following the cyclone, the club’s main river training ground was contaminated with brown waste and the plans for the club’s new boat shed now back to the drawing board given the devastation to the riverbank. All their small waka were destroyed which has seen this highly competitive club grind to a halt. The Milford Foundation will replace the waka that were lost.
• Tapuae Sports Club (Wairoa): The whole club – a hub in the community which supports netball, rugby and junior rugby, basketball and squash – has suffered significantly. The changing rooms were filled with silt and as such they can no longer host games due to the lack of facilities. The loss of sports gear in the club was also significant for both junior and senior teams. The Milford Foundation will deliver funding across the board.
• Tairawhiti Adventure Trust (Gisborne): With Slash covering the beaches, the river full of sewage, and playgrounds ravaged in the wake of the cyclone, youth of the region have few spaces to play. Milford Foundation will support the rebuild of the Tolaga Bay Pump Track, which was destroyed after the cyclone.
• Tahurimai Netball (Wairoa): With 33 active teams in Wairoa and the season starting in early May, the netball club needs urgent help. They lost all their equipment in the cyclone and currently have nothing for the teams to use, nor do they have netball posts and poles for the courts in Wairoa where they train and play. The Milford Foundation will replace all equipment lost and fund a storage facility for the new equipment for the up-and-coming season.

The Milford Foundation is also in conversation with locals and officials about a special project in Hawke’s Bay and will also seek to support additional projects, like this one, following the event and subject to funds raised.

Milford Foundation Chief Executive Bryce Marsden says, “Sports help to build a sense of community, belonging and opportunity for rangatahi and tamariki throughout New Zealand. All of the sportspeople backing our event next month have seen and benefitted from that first-hand, and our hope is to provide hundreds of thousands in essential funding to the hardest hit areas.”

“We’ve mustered some of New Zealand’s greatest sporting legends for an evening that will be sure to provide yarns you’ll dine out on for years to come. More importantly though, we’re supporting an incredibly worthwhile cause – getting our young people back to the sports they love and creating space for these hard-hit communities to re-gather in a positive way.”

Haimona Ngata, chair of the Tairāwhiti Adventure Trust, says “As a volunteer community organisation, the Tairāwhiti Adventure Trust are over the moon to receive support from the Milford Foundation Cyclone Relief Fundraiser Event. Our kaupapa is about making active recreation sports accessible for all here in Te Tairāwhiti, including our rural communities up and down the east coast. With the recent weather events showing that these communities can be cut off from the rest of Aotearoa for weeks or months, it’s imperative that our tamariki, rangatahi, and whanau have active recreation assets like a pump track to ensure that they are getting outside and active, not only for their physical health, but mental health as well.”

The fundraiser is supported by sponsors Parrotdog, Foxes Island Wines, and Milford Asset Management. All the sports people and Jason Gunn have donated their time to make this event possible.

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