Family fun and Poohsticks

On Saturday 8^th of November six months of visioning, planning and preparation came together when we met up with children, families and friends at Mair Park for our Poohsticks fundraising event.

 In case you are feeling a little perplexed about what ‘Poohsticks’ is all about here is a wee explanation:

"The trick is to drop the stick in a 'twitchy' sort of way" Eeyore

Poohsticks is a sport first mentioned in the House at Pooh Corner, a Winnie-the Pooh book by A.A Milne. Poohsticks is traditionally played when each player drops a chosen stick over the up-stream side of a bridge into a river, the winner is the person whose stick emerges first from under the bridge (The enchanted 100 acre wood).

Poohsticks is a bit of a favourite game for children who attend our weekly Nature Programme, so when we were visioning innovative fundraising ideas earlier in the year; this concept became a group favourite.

It was an absolutely fantastic day, we were blessed with glorious weather and thanks to the excellent pre planning skills of one of our Dad’s (thanks Phil!) our Poohsticks race down the river captured the turn of the tide.

Hopeful winners lined the bank of Hatea River to countdown the start and then watch all two hundred and fifty of our Poohsticks be dropped from the Mair Park Bridge.

On the river we had dads Nigel and Dave ready in kayak’s to assist stranded sticks and capture the winning numbers as they crossed the finish line.

It was nearly a photo finish!

On the completion of the race participants were enticed back up to Mair Park to partake in delicious kai options (including Choice Blocks and Latino Coffee) and be entertained by local musicians Ryan Karaka with Lex and Jay and Tauraroa School Jazz band In the Foyer.

Thanks to the generosity of so many local businesses we also had five Poohsticks prizes and thirty three spot prizes to give away! It was so wonderful watching so much joyfulness being spread amongst community.

On behalf of the teaching team, I want to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported us in making this such a successful family day. We also want to acknowledge our parent support group: Katie, Emma, Kirsty, Yvette, Karla and Michelle who have worked so hard behind to scenes in preparing for this day, also Sarah who has organised so much of the administration.

What has been most affirming for me is how lucky we are in our kindergarten community to be able to draw on the wealth of knowledge and skills of our attending community. When we all do a little bit, we have a lot to celebrate. The monies raised from this event will be used to re-develop an area of our outside playscape.

‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give’                             

   - Winston Churchill

The beautiful images captured in this blogpost were kindly supplied by two of our families; Thank you Sam Cotterill  - Craig and Colleen Smith.

Noho ora mai

Kim