It’s always great to get in the community and talk to people and raise awareness. On Saturday evening we were able to be present at the Wellington Phoenix game at Westpac Stadium. Here’s a bit of an insight into what is involved in these collections. . .
On a fine and crisp Wellington Autumn night, volunteers kindly gave up their time to support The Little Miracles Trust. This activity mirrored our presence for the last home game in 2016, where our great supporter and neonatal father Ben Sigmund played his last game for the Wellington Phoenix (The picture to the right is from our 2016 collection). We asked to again be present in 2017 and were privileged to be able to raise awareness and collect again at the last home game of the 2016/2017 season.
What’s involved?
- It’s important to work with your host and ensure that our presence fits with their activity. On the Friday before the game we dropped off 2 x incubator donation boxes and our collection buckets to a secure store room. The incubators aren’t small and best to not deliver on the collection day itself – as so much going on for the security staff and Stadium teams (especially when this weekend was a double header, with the Hurricanes on the Friday night).
- On the day of the collection we arrived early and re-confirmed positioning of incubators and collectors. It can get busy pre-match, especially in the last 15 minutes when a large number of fans arrive just in time for kick off. Working with Shaun from the Stadium we found some good spots to be visible, but yet not in the way of the fans.
- A briefing sheet was provided to the collectors to cover off any questions that they may have and vests and buckets provided.
From gates opening at 6.30pm to the match kick-off at 7.35pm, we were done in just over an hour! With a little bit of time to pack away the gear in a secure room (for collection on Monday, when Stadium staff have less going on) and the collection was all done!
The incubator donation boxes are a great awareness tool. Made from incubators that were out of service, you can learn about their conversion here
When not in use at events such as this, we look to have them hosted at venues with high foot traffic. The photo to the right shows one being hosted by the great team at Railway New World, just down the road from Westpac Stadium. If you can host an incubator donation box, or have a suggestion for us, we’d love to hear from you at info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
The results
- Raising awareness of neonatal journeys is a key objective. It was pleasing to also hand out hundreds of fliers on the night
- Who says people don’t carry cash anymore? It was a wonderfully heavy and large bag of coins with plenty of notes as well. There were some very generous supporters and the notes made up over half of the $ total
- Some wonderful conversations were had with neonatal unit graduate families sharing their experience. Many parents stopped at our incubator donation boxes to explain to their children that they were cared for in an incubator when they were a baby
- The highlight of the night? A son was told by Dad that he’d match dollar-for-dollar any amount he wanted to give . . . the young chap, approx 11 years old, gave $30(!), which Dad then matched right then. How good is that?!
Certain larger fundraising activities and events can be for specific projects and items. Undertaking general fundraising (like this example) is important to enable our ongoing support to be delivered such as the thousands of Support packs we hand out every year, the creation of new and targetted support material, and more. You can view a gallery of the range of our support here.
Want to help us deliver our support of families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey? Donations can be made safely and securely here and you will recieve an automatic donation receipt for claiming this back against your personal income.
Our thanks go to:
Collections such as this aren’t possible without the great support of a range of people and organisations. Our sincere thanks go to:
- Our volunteers. Thanks to Raewyn and Lawrence and their girls Holly & Makayla, plus Sarah, Mark and Megan for volunteering their time to make it happen. Buckets were held, our incubator donation boxes monitored, and hundreds of fliers were handed out
- The Wellington Phoenix and Westpac Stadium for enabling our presence at Saturday nights game
- The folk at the Yellow Fever – in addition to their loud chants and fervent support of the ‘Nix, they’re extremely generous with their time and support of the community. They helped us raise awareness of our collection prior to the game and even helped rope in the Backbencher to host a collection bucket for us – which they hand delivered to us at Westpac Stadium. Full noise, and full service!
- Ben and Deanna Sigmund who have been great supporters for a number of years. This page from 2016 provides an insight into their connection
- The generous people who donated to The Little Miracles Trust and/or stopped to chat and share their story.
