Charity football raises $1800 for Swim for Life Tairāwhiti fund

Between working full time at BDO, running for council and weeding our local roundabouts, Isaac Hughes somehow found time to start and run a new charity indoor football league.

The competition, which ran from 10 September until 15 October, saw eight teams competing in what was first and foremost a social competition, with all proceeds being donated to Swim for Life Tairāwhiti’s fund at Sunrise.

Kerry Taggart, Sunrise marketing manager, went along for finals night. Team ‘Bohos’ were the Cup Winners for which they won a ‘sippy-cup’. There was also a real wooden spoon for the last placed team.

Kerry had the task of judging the category prizes which included best goal, fall (an epic goal save which saw the goalie fall backwards out of the YMCA doors), near miss and one for ‘nut shot of the day’, where the winner was awarded a bag of nuts for their efforts.

Kerry says "the emphasis was on participation and everyone had lots of fun. It was a great atmosphere, and an amazing $1800 was raised for Swim for Life Tairāwhiti’s fund at Sunrise.”

After the success of the inaurgural tournament Isaac is now running a multi-sport madness mercantile competition, with all proceeds going to the Gisborne Stroke Support fund at Sunrise.

Isaac also has plans to run another soccer league later in summer, wanting to expand it into two divisions of six teams each, one social and one competitive.

Kerry added that “so many of our small community organisations, such as Swim for Life Tairāwhiti and Gisborne Stroke Support Group, desperately need an ongoing reliable source of passive income. As their funds grow they can rely on that annual income to help them continue their important work.”

“We’d like to thank Isaac for starting this awesome initative, and also pass on a big thanks to the league sponsors and all the participants."