WORLD, Warehouse raise $200,000+ with Starship Tee

WORLD and The Warehouse raise $200,000+ with Charity Starship T-shirt

Three iconic New Zealand institutions have raised more than $200,000 to boost a cutting-edge national health network for children.

Leading New Zealand fashion house WORLD produced a Limited Edition range of designer children's T-shirts, sold exclusively through The Warehouse, to support the Starship Foundation.
WORLD directors, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper, focused their renowned creative skills on five custom T-shirt designs in sizes infant to 14 years.

Demand for the T-shirts was intense when launched in October last year, with first day queues outside many stores. Dedicated followers of fashion also gathered at The Warehouse stores around the country to meet Denise in person as she visited a number of towns and cities as part of the fundraising campaign.

“This project joined three of New Zealand’s most iconic brands to work together for the same great outcome – an affordable designer T-shirt that got kids supporting kids,” Denise says.

“Not only have we produced a fantastic financial result for Starship, we’ve also encouraged kids to think about others in need and feel good about being able to help.”

Five dollars from every $15 T-shirt went to Starship Foundation to support a national video-conferencing network, the New Zealand TelePaediatric Service (NZTPS), aimed at connecting communities to the best medical expertise possible.

Starship Foundation Chief Executive Andrew Young says he is thrilled that the combination of a leading designer, a major national retailer and a compelling cause created such a huge success.

“We strive each year to fund a range of local, regional and national services to ensure children receive the best medical care possible – no matter where they live,” he says.

“We are very proud to use proceeds from each T-shirt sold to support NZTPS, a video-conferencing network which uses technology to cleverly share expertise within New Zealand and beyond.”

The Starship Foundation is the premier supporter of NZTPS, having contributed key funds for hospital-based video-conferencing equipment around the country, as well as core costs for the network to exist as a managed, national service.

Andrew says the T-shirt campaign also celebrates 15 years of amazing support from The Warehouse, which has been generously contributing to Starship since the hospital opened in November 1991.

The Warehouse spokesperson, Cynthia Church, says she is delighted that New Zealanders embraced the campaign through such strong sales.

About the New Zealand TelePaediatric Service (NZTPS) Network

With the NZTPS network, doctors, nurses and a multitude to health-related professionals are connected live through television screens all over the country, enabling them to speak face-to-face with one another, share medical knowledge and information and discuss specific patient cases.

The NZTPS connects all 21 District Health Boards together and is primarily based in the paediatric wards and services of those Boards.

NZTPS currently delivers medical education, lectures and clinical meetings between health professionals. Occasionally the video-conferencing sessions will involves patients directly.

Local, regional and national NZTPS uses include:

- Child psychiatrists using the network to counter mental health problems common in New Zealand children and adolescents. The focus is to increase the research so professionals are better informed about how best to help children, young people and their families and to improve services

- Hospital Play Specialists work with patients to lessen fear and anxiety while in hospital. Starship Play Specialists have provided leadership in training others on the latest techniques and skills using video teaching. Recipients have included Kidz First at Middlemore, Waitakere (a sole practitioner who has had little support in her role from her own hospital), Wilson Centre on the North Shore, Whangarei and Hawkes Bay. Individual play specialists have reported new confidence as a result rather than feeling isolated and without means to quick education and training.

- The Child Protection Team at Auckland’s Puawaitahi Centre has frequent abuse case conferences with other centres. These are multidisciplinary including medical staff, social workers, CYFS and Police. They also hold weekly national child protection group meetings on the latest research findings and studies and have occasional DSAC (Doctors for Sexual Abuse Care) training seminars.

- Paediatric Cardiologists have formed a National Cardiac Inherited Diseases Group which has been instrumental in setting up the national testing for inherited heart disease. The group meets monthly via the network and includes Cardiologists, Pathologists and Geneticists. The committee is being extended to include specialists in Australia. The use of videoconferencing has been crucial to the project.

- Hospital specialists in larger centres teaching patients in remote towns how to use complex equipment/new techniques to control their conditions

- Terminally-ill children and their families having a direct video-conference connection from their homes to a hospital-based specialist team

- Paediatric Rheumatology clinics from between the Hutt Valley and Taranaki over the network. At initial stages but proving to save stressful journeys by children who are very physically disabled with paediatric arthritis and can not easily travel long distances.

- The Paediatric Society’s Pharmacists Special Interest Group meets bi-monthly with up to 10 centres involved. A major benefit is a face to face link with Pharmac in Wellington to address the issue of drug funding for children and access to medicines, drug protocols & guidelines. “Some pharmacists working in paediatrics in smaller centres feel isolated so a set-up like TelePaeds acts as a great link to give support to these pharmacists,” one says.

ENDS

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