Wheels-a-thon 2017

There is one particular favourite annual event at kindergarten, one that everyone seems to love, it’s our Wheels-a-thon fundraiser at the Kensington courts.  This year the event was held on Wednesday 22^nd March 2017, which had an excellent turn out and support.

Our wheels-a-thon is a special event that brings our kindergarten community together children, families, friends, and teachers to participate in an action fun event that generates crucial fundraising money for our kindergarten.

“People coming together as a community can make things happen”  Jacob Rees-Mogg

As part of the build up for the wheels-a-thon we were lucky to have a visit from the police, Constable Toni Bean, who spoke about the importance of how to keep safe while riding bikes and scooters.  She explained and demonstrated how to correctly wear helmets, where to ride safely and how to be visiable.

Before the event our children seemed to enjoy watching footage from last year where they noticed either themselves or friends who have since left.  On Wednesday kindergarten was full of anticipation and excitement as the children spoke about what wheels they were bringing and what they might be wearing;

Jonah:  “I’m going to dress up as a pirate with a lookout”

Tilly:  “I’m taking my bike we’ve already decorated it”

Milla:  “I’m taking my scooter, guess what?  It’s getting dressed up as the beast”
Arlo:  “I just can’t wait, I’m going to be spiderman and my brother Theo is going to be batman”

Fortunately on the day we had great weather with wonderful support from children and their whānau.  It was lovely to see so many of the bikes or scooters had been decorated thoughtfully with balloons, tinsel, streamers, windmills, ribbons, plants and flowers.  Many of the children also chose to decorate themselves wearing fantastic dress ups, some were so good that I didn’t even recognise them!  After all the effort of completing many laps of the courts, there was a refreshing ice block to help cool down.

I asked the children what they enjoyed most about the wheels-a-thon, here are some of their comments;

Raina:  “Driving around on my bike.  I liked the sausage”.
Maxwell:  “I liked riding my scooter really fast”.
Noah:  “I liked the ice block”.                                          
Archie:  “I liked riding fast, we went round and round”.
Elsie:  “I could turn corners so quick on my scooter”.

Community events like the wheels-a-thon provide an excellent opportunity for whānau/families to engage with each other, meet new friends and socialise outside of kindergarten.

A huge thank you to all the whānau who helped make this event such a success through offering support and help with many jobs including preparing the bread and onions, transporting the barbeque to the courts and back, cooking and selling the sausages and gaining sponsorship.  This year all monies fundraised will be used to purchase moveable garden beds for our kindergarten.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”  Helen Keller

Thank you to Christine for compiling this video from all the photographs.

Mā te wā

Susie