Christchurch Airport Joins Couplands Bakeries to Help Kids

Christchurch Airport Joins Couplands Bakeries to Help Kids in Need

Variety Trillian Bash convoy hits South Island March 12

South Island businesses are getting right behind the 2016 Variety Trillian Bash in aid of Variety – the Children’s Charity and its bid to help Kiwi kids achieve brighter futures.

A new Bash team from Christchurch airport will join long-term Bash stalwarts the Bash Bakers, who are proudly supported by Couplands Bakeries.

This is the first time that the Christchurch International Airport has entered a Bash team. It will feature a ‘Top Guns’ theme with a 1982 International Acco Fire truck dressed as an F14A Tomcat naval fighter jet, complete with wings and tail, as featured in the 1986 film ‘Top Gun’ starring Tom Cruise.

The 4000 children the Bash will visit along the route will be entertained by the ‘Highway to the Danger Zone sound track, fire sirens and, we’re promised, water cannons!

The airport has signed up to support the Variety message, and is keen to help spread goodwill among the rural areas the Bash passes through. It has an impressive line-up of local supporting businesses, including Philips NZ – which donated 100 sets of headphones to give away – Contact Energy, Orbit Travel, and even PPG Wrightson – which supplies grass seed for the airport – and K9 Natural Food Ltd, which provides dog food for the airport’s Wildlife Control dog team.

Christchurch Airport Communications manager Yvonne Densem said two teams themed in suitable fighter-pilot costumes will take part, swapping part way. “We are a 24/7 operation, and need to be sure we can cover everything back at base while the Top Guns are working for Kiwi kids away from their home base!”

The fire truck is the oldest vehicle still in service in the Christchurch Airport fleet, and is undergoing final adaptions this week prior to meeting the North Island teams off the Bluebridge ferry on Saturday March 12.

It’ll be joined at the Picton dock by David Drake and his Bash Bakers Ford Fairlane. Drake is a veteran of many ‘Bashes’, as attested by the number of charity runs it has attended listed across that slab-like bonnet. He’s attended at least 18 Bashes in New Zealand and 12 in Australia, where the Bash name originated from the first bush-bashing event.

Drake has signed up Couplands Bakeries to the cause, and the Bash crews will taste its flavoursome baking along the way, as the crew’s catering team collect baking at various facilities along the route.

Why does he find the money to make the Variety entry donation and turn up, year after year? “When you are part of donating a much-needed bike, or wheelchair, or a laptop or school uniform to assist a child in his or her development – and you see the delight on their faces, well, it is moving, and sometimes you shed a tear or two.”

Drake says it’s a no-brainer that the ‘haves’ should help the ‘have-nots’. Many New Zealand kids just need that extra hand to help them step up to a more promising future.

Both the Top Guns and Bash Bakers crews say they’re looking forward to meeting kids along the way. Watch out for them along the Variety Trillian Bash route below, and for more information, follow them on the VarietyNZBash facebook page, or call the contact numbers below.

2016 Variety Trillian Bash route

March 12: Levin to Blenheim – thanks to Bluebridge ferries

March 13: Blenheim, via Wairau Hospital visit toPortage Resort

March 14: Portage area, visit Waitaria Bay School WORKING BEE

March 15: Portage to Nelson via Linkwater School, Havelock School, Canvastown School, Rai Valley School, Hira School, Clifton Terrace School, Auckland Point School. BUCKET SHAKE AT NELSON

March 16: Nelson to Blackball via Auckland Point School, Brightwater School, Wakefield School, Murchison Area School, Westport, Greymouth.

March 17: Greymouth to Lake Coleridge via Cobden School, Blackball School TREE PLANTING, St Patricks School, Dobson School, Lake Brunner School

March 18: Methven to Timaru via Methven School, Rakaia School, Chertsey School, Fairton School, Asburton Borough School, $6325 GRANT TO ASHBURTON COLLEGE STUDENT LEARNING SUPPORT UNIT ending at the Caroline Bay Sound Shell: BIKES FOR KIDS will be presented to children at several schools today

ENDS

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