Dancing With Stars Celebrity Brings Festive Cheer

30 November 2005

Dancing With Stars Celebrity Brings Festive Cheer At Kidz First Christmas Party This Weekend

‘Dancing with the Stars’ winner Norm Hewitt will be the most anticipated guest among those celebrating the festive season at the Kidz First Christmas party on Saturday [subs: December 3].

Hewitt will arrive at the SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre, appropriately costumed as the jolly red fellow, at around 12:45pm, with a sack-full of gifts for more than 200 children – those who are under the care of the Kidz First Community Services team and their siblings.

The adventure begins at 11am with a bus journey from Manukau Superclinic to the central city, where the children and their families will get to meet Santa, Griffin’s Cookie Bear, Nesquik Bunny and other famous faces (including TV 3’s Sarah Bradley). There will also be face painters, clowns and magical fairies as well as Christmas cake and giveaways courtesy of SKYCITY, Planet Fun and John West.

To help light up the lives of Aucklanders, but especially those with children hospitalised throughout the year, Sky Tower will be especially lit up for the Kidz First Christmas party in red and green from dusk on Saturday 3 December through to 31 December 2005.

SKYCITY has supported Kidz First since its opening in 2000 and has hosted the Christmas party for the past two years. Last year the SKYCITY Auckland Community Trust launched a dental health awareness campaign and funded a mobile caravan.

SKYCITY is also the major sponsor of the Kidz First Children’s Hospital Burns and Plastics Unit which opened in 2001 offering specialist burns treatment for children in the greater Auckland area - and in more severe cases, from throughout New Zealand.

SKYCITY Media Relations Manager Paul Gregory, says the annual Christmas party is a way for SKYCITY to further support families of children in the wider Auckland area who may have had a challenging year.

“This is the second year SKYCITY has hosted a special Kidz First Christmas party. We’re proud and happy to be able to help kids who may have been through a difficult time and the families who have supported them, to enjoy themselves at this special time of year,” he says.

Executive director of the South Auckland Health Foundation, Pam Tregonning, says it is wonderful to have the ongoing support of SKYCITY.

Kidz First has an 85-bed inpatient facility, with its own emergency department and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It specialises in burns, plastics and orthopaedic treatment and also has a large community-based paediatric service.

The South Auckland Health Foundation supports and raises funds for the health services of Counties Manukau District Health Board, including Middlemore Hospital and Kidz First Children’s Hospital.

ENDS

© Scoop Media