Christmas 2014 Newsletter - John Walker Find Your Field of Dreams

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Christmas Newsletter - December 2014

As 2014 comes to a close, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your ongoing support of the young people of Auckland south, without which, the John Walker Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation would not be able to continue to provide the opportunities for our young people to “find their field of dreams”.

FYFOD are lucky to have wonderful sponsors and supporters who are listed at the end of this newsletter and we thank you for your continued support.

2014 has been a huge year once again, our Throw for Gold athletes continued their ongoing success at the recent National Secondary School Champs held in Wanganui, with an amazing 7 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze. Not only that, Sam Ulufonua (pictured above) won both the Senior Boys Discus and Shot Put and our understanding is that this is the first time that it has been achieved by the same athlete in the same meet.

This year has seen one of our inaugural Throw for Gold Athletes, Tina Hakeai represent NZ at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games finishing an outstanding fourth, there are only bigger and better things to come for her.

Thank you to our wonderful Throw for Gold coaching team led by Nigel Edwards.

Community Swim continues to go from strength to strength with the grateful support of Auckland Council (Mike Ibbertson & team) who provide the facilities and run our fleet of buses and Swimgym (Horst Miehe & Katherine Sugarman), the organises of the lessons and provide all the amazing instructors.

A staggering number of students have been through the programme this year with well over 1,000 students having completed the 200m swim.

FYFOD are so proud and delighted to be acknowledged by the Sealord New Zealand Water Safety Awards by winning the Education sector for our Community Swim programme.

This is not just an award for FYFOD, but all those involved with, in or sponsoring Community Swim. A big thank you must go to our Principal Sponsor - The Lion Foundation who have been with us on this project since the very beginning.

Primary Sport has continued to grow with 41 schools from Papatoetoe, Otara, Otahuhu and Mangere being offered so many wonderful sporting opportunities, including inter-school cluster competitions and time to meet some of their idols – the NZ Breakers. You can always check out what is happening with the programme on You Tube and Facebook.

We are eternally grateful to the wonderful team of Lincoln Jefferson and Meagan Grayson from Counties Manukau Sport who run this programme for us.

Secondary Sport is engaging 12 secondary schools from Auckland south, linking the schools through regular meetings with sports co-ordinators so ideas can be shared.

The programme is encouraging more inter school and intra school competition and also developing school leaders. Many thanks to College Sport for being the co-ordinator and conduit between the schools on behalf of FYFOD.

Just a few weeks ago, we ran the Bays Night of 5’s at the AUT Millennium Institute of Sport where top athletes competed for that Auckland 5,000 metre events. It was a very successful night with Lydia Odonnell taking out the womens event (Lydia won the 2014 Queen Street Golden Mile) and Aaron Pulford winning the mens.

This night was also an opportunity for us to honour Sir John for all that he has achieved and we were delighted to have his coach Arch Jelley with us that night.

Thank you once again to Honda NZ for your support with the Night of 5's and also for providing us with our very stylie signwritten Honda Civic, without your support, Rick would have very worn out shoes and very sore feet! We look forward to your working with you in 2015.

Well that’s it for another year, but watch this space for some exciting news for 2015. Some events may require you to put on your running shoes!

So from Rick and Margaret here in the office and the board of trustees we wish you and your family a very safe and Merry Christmas and we look forward to working with you all in 2015.

Our wonderful supporters – funders – business supporters

Akarana Community Trust, All About Promotions, ASB College Sport, Auckland Council, Auckland Sports Photography, AUT, AUT Millennium Institute of Sport, BlueSky Community Trust, BNZ Business Partners, Castle Brown, CST Nexia, Counties Manukau Sport, Deloitte, Endeavour Community Trust, Four Winds Foundation, Honda New Zealand, Infinity Foundation Limited, Joyce Fisher Charitable Trust, Lagardere Unlimited, Lindenberg & Partners, Nahkle Group, Nautilus Foundation, North & South Trust, NZOC, OBD Ltd, Platform 29, Potter Masonic Trust, Sport NZ, Swimgym, The Lion Foundation, The Southern Trust, The Trusts Charitable Foundation, Trans Tasman Business Circle, WaterSafety NZ, Westfield New Zealand, William Buck Christmas Gouwland Ltd, 3Bit Solutions

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