Big Buddy Launches New Fundraising Foundation
Willie Apiata VC and Prime Minister to speak at Launch Event
June 26, Auckland- Big Buddy will today launch a new Foundation aimed at securing funding for the continued mentoring of
the nation’s fatherless boys so that that they have good role models to guide them into adulthood with true self-worth,
purpose and meaning.
The Big Buddy Foundation will be officially launched at an invite only cocktail event at the Nathan Club tonight in
Auckland’s Britomart and include VIPs such as Prime Minister John Key, New Zealand’s most trusted person, Willie Apiata
VC, and ex-All Black Legend Grant Fox.
The Big Buddy Foundation will ultimately provide a mechanism to guarantee the independent future of the Big Buddy
programme, and to allow financial stability for its national growth, says Big Buddy Foundation Chairman, Jeff Meltzer.
“The Foundation will also ensure that the values of Big Buddy can be maintained independently, regardless of changing
investment, support criteria and capability of the funders.”
The priority of the funding will be to support core activities and expand the number of branches to areas where there is
a clear and established need, most likely to the South and East of Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Bay of Plenty and
Wairarapa.
The launch event will spread awareness of the significance of Big Buddy and the importance of its work throughout New
Zealand. The long-term goal is for returns from the Foundation to provide the majority of operational funding for Big
Buddy, underpinning its financial stability and increasing the reach of the organisation.
We are very excited to have, among many others, the support of Willie Apiata VC for the foundation. As a role model he
inspires many of us for the courage and bravery he has demonstrated throughout his life including growing up without a
father, says Meltzer.
“Big Buddy mentoring works on the simple philosophy that boys need good male role models in their lives to become good
men, and that’s exactly what Willie is.”
ENDS