Pink Fire Truck Get Behind Kids in Need with Variety

Pink Fire Truck Get Behind Kids in Need with Variety

Whangarei mates’ fund-raising band poised for take-off

Whangarei local Andrew Sworn is a busy man these days. He and his mates are hard at work fettling their pink-painted fire truck to enter the Variety Trillian Bash fund-raising road rally in aid of disadvantaged Kiwi kids – and are also planning a water-borne event to help fill charity coffers. The Variety Splash will launch almost the moment they return.

The 25th Anniversary Variety Trillian Bash will start off in New Plymouth on March 7, zig-zagging the north island before ending in Auckland a week later, delivering grants to low-decile and rural schools and kids along the way.

“We were up here last year,” Andrew says, “and we take a different route every year to ensure as many country kids as possible get the benefit – of the entertainment the convoy brings with it, as much as the grants we deliver.”

He and his mates don’t have a sponsor for their mighty pink truck, a 1981 International Acco fire engine with a 5.6-litre V8 engine, and so the large donation they must pledge to take part in the event is raised themselves, through sausage sizzles and galas, fire engine rides and Warehouse BBQs.

“It’s all worth it to see the smiles on kids’ faces,” Andrew says.

Why pink? Andrew was running a Chev Impala sponsored by Big Ben Pies, and his daughter Mel wanted to get involved. She found an ex fire-service fire truck and persuaded him to buy it, the plan being to run an all-girl team from 2009 under the H2O Gurlz banner. That never quite happened, and with Mel moving on and her dad’s car in need of restoration, he’s now running the renamed Pink Truck’n team. Yes, he’s kept the colour, partly to help draw attention to the cause, he says, and also because girls like fire engines too – and for every one who loves a red truck, there are plenty turning up in pink who clearly get a buzz from seeing Pink Truck’n in the thick of it.

The truck’s been fitted with sirens, lights and a sound system, while the pumping gear was replaced with a portable pump as water fights have become something of a Bash feature, local fire crews getting in on the action, and Pink Truck’n always among the watery mayhem – anyone on the six seats up top is guaranteed to get wet.

No wonder Sworn and his friends organise their water-borne fundraiser each year, with the next Variety Splash taking place around the Whangarei Harbour on March 27-29.

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