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Contact This was a Fundraiser for our local Aotea Playcentre - Copyright 2010 - All Rights Reserved |
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The Calendar Girls of Great Barrier Island Great Barrier Island is renowned for its natural beauty, rough roads and alternative lifestyle. It’s also now become known for its very own calendar girls! 12 women, all over 45 and long term residents on the island, took on this huge personal challenge in order to support the local Playcentre in a major fundraising project. The women are independent, resourceful and very community spirited. Many of them are ex-Playcentre mums and some are even grandmothers. The women were treated to a professional makeover and, after nerves were settled, performed like professionals! The photo shoot took two days and the backdrop of each scene was selected for its significance to each of the women. The experience has been described as a privilege. So why undertake such a large scale fundraising effort? The island has a large number of preschool children and options for early childhood education are limited. Playcentre is a vital link for the geographically spread families with young children who live on the island and provides essential early childhood education. The Playcentre is badly in need of a larger building to provide more space and to meet the compliance requirements for an early childhood centre. The local contribution expected for this is around $50,000. With such a small permanent population on the island, this is a daunting task that would require a staggering amount of ‘sausage sizzle’ type fundraisers. So, the little Playcentre thought big. A calendar, the best way to appeal to a broad spectrum of people both on and off the island, while giving something to the purchaser in return for their support. The calendar girls’ format was chosen because the island women deserve to be celebrated. The women are gorgeous, they live true to their values and they do amazing things for the community and the environment. This ambitious project is of course inspired by the original ‘Calendar Girls’ movie. The wider Barrier community - permanent, holiday home owners and visitors - showed incredible support. At every turn another offer of professional help was forthcoming in order to keep production costs to an absolute minimum. Jackie Meiring, a Barrier holiday home owner, is an accomplished fashion photographer and was on board from the outset. Carron Wells, a regular visitor to the island, is a freelance hair and make-up artist and soon joined the team. Christine O’Connor, a relation of Carron’s and professional hair stylist, completed the makeover team. Complimentary design of the calendar was offered by Nick Worthington of Colenso BBDO Ltd. The launch date of the calendar was October’s Labour weekend with calendars on sale at local Barrier outlets, and at selected mainland locations.
Max Foundation For New Zealand Women - profile on our Calendar Girls
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