WOMAD 2023 Official Charity
We were fortunate to be awarded the coveted position of Official Charity to WOMAD 2023. Just one organisation is chosen by WOMAD NZ Charitable Trust to canvas festival attendees at the gate each year for donations. With up to 15,00 people attending, it is a rich opportunity for a charity to not only collect cash but to share the story of their organisations purpose.
We had a total of seventeen people there over two involved including volunteers, staff, Trustees, a sponsor (Nick Jones pictured) and a random festival goer who was a friend of Manager Celine Filbee. One couple, who only want to be named as Greg and Lynda helped the Trust out for two days collection donations. The Perrett family consisting of thirteen year old twins Sophie and Samantha (pictured), big brother William and one of his School buddies Jakob Henderson were a hit with the public on Friday night.
the Trust collected $6733 in donations from cash and eftpos on the gates, post event website donations and one local business owner who transferred $1000 to the trusts account a few days later. We by the outcome of the weekend, Friday night was affected by the damp conditions as there were not the normal gate queues, but on Saturday the place was pumping and many people that we had spoken to the night before came armed with their cash. The biggest donation at the gate was $100, generous and humbling for sure. Celineis very thankful to our Trustees and volunteers for their assistance, a lot of planning went into what looked like standing around shaking a bucket and waving an EFTPOS machine but it was a little more complex than that and adequate resourcing was critical.
WOMAD Event Director and CEO of TAFT Suzanne Porter says “there were a number of worthy applications this year as always, but we believe that the work Taranaki Kiwi Trust does in protecting kiwi in our region is really important and not widely recognised. We saw this as an opportunity to help raise their profile and support the amazing work that they do.”
Image Nick Jones, Sophie and Samantha Perrett and Nadine Patterson on the Brooklands Gate
