Bid to seek support from the local business community

The Selwyn Sports Trust, a charitable trust set up to encourage participation in active recreation in the Selwyn District, has been a part of many inspirational stories since its inception 10 years ago. In an effort to share some of these stories it’s bottling them up and sharing them with local businesses.

Pictured:  Mitch Prendergast, Doug McSweeney and Sarah McClure from the Selwyn Sports Trust.

“The idea of sharing our stories has been bubbling away for a long time, so we have made the decision to bottle them, put a lid on the top, a message on the side and see if we can get some needed support from the Selwyn business community” General Manager Doug McSweeney commented.

The very first ‘flavour’ off the production line is called ‘Young Wāhine learns to ride a bike’.

This flavour is a really special one, and the story below best describes what happens when you open the lid:

A Mum rings the local school leading up to an iBike session (our bike education programme) really nervous about her daughter participating as she can’t ride a bike. They have been trying to teach her for a few years now, but with very little luck.

The Dad came along and watched the session from afar to make sure she is okay.

The young girl is nervous at first but by the end of the session is taught how to ride her bike, becoming a confident rider.

Dad has tears in his eyes, as he is so happy she is now able to enjoy the experience of riding a bike. He is now going to buy a bike so he can go riding with her.

With the current bottling initiative there are a number of ‘flavours available’ but the Trust is expecting ‘Young Wāhine Learns to Ride A Bike, ‘Road Runners saved my life, and ‘Young Tamariki builds confidence; feels included’ to be the most popular.

“We knew that the concept of bottling what we do and ‘selling it’ was something that people would resonate with, and we hope it generates some conversation around the office, and for some of the business owners or even parents and grand parents, who are in our community, might see the opportunity to partner with the Trust”

The Selwyn Sports Trust operates solely from grants and fundraising. With just 3% of its annual funding coming from the Tū Manawa (Sport New Zealand) annual fund, it is reliant on other funding sources like sponsors, foundations and gaming charities and a strategic partnership with the Selwyn District Council.

“We run three major events each year; the Koru Games, Lake Crichton Multisport Series, and the Selwyn Stampede Running & Walking Festival. These events are designed to allow the whole community to participate, so entry fees are set low and they are all run as a breakeven event, not a money making event – which is what the Trust is all about” added McSweeney

“Alongside these events, we also deliver our Activator Programme into 26 Selwyn Primary Schools (invested schools). This programme is all about supporting each school to deliver physical activity, and where we can we connect schools together via cluster events. Our biggest cluster event is the Activation Spectacular, which enabled 2,500+ tamariki to be active nearly 50,000 times over a four-week period.  The Trust proudly subsidise this programme 70% of the cost”.

“We have a wonderful partnership with the Selwyn District Council, and we currently align on a strategic partnership to deliver physical activity into the community and also the iBike bicycle education programme in primary schools”

The Selwyn Sports Trust is currently focused on building a strategy in partnership with the four Selwyn secondary schools that will focus on supporting these schools to meet their physical activity and sport outcomes, but also focus on those rangatahi who are no longer engaging in sport and physical activity.

“We know the work we do alongside our invested primary schools is making a real difference in all the ways physical activity does, but we also know there is a drop-off when these young people transition to secondary school, so we want to do everything we can to support the schools to make a difference.”

The new Rangatahi Strategy is an important gap identified in the community, and the Selwyn Sports Trust is seeking commercial support and sponsorship to enable the Trust to be able to deliver the strategy in 2024 and beyond.

Article added: Wednesday 30 August 2023