Tayler Reid's dash for cash benefits General Fund

A fundraising event on 1 May where a team of five from Alan Berry Motors Suzuki competed against NZ athlete Tayler Reid in a 10km race around Boys High 400m running track has raised over $1000 for Sunrise’s General Fund.  

Excitement levels and nerves were high before the race started, as Alan wasn’t sure how big the time gap between Tayler and his team would be, but he felt there had been tough times for lots of people lately and the community needed something to enjoy. 

“It’s a fun thing to do when there’s all doom and gloom out there at the moment.”  

Members of the public including Mayor Rehette Stoltz and radio host Bevan Chapman joined in on the fun, taking up Sunrise’s offer to ‘donate and test your speed against a world class athlete’ by running a lap of the track. Tayler’s whanau chose to create their own relay team and after a generous donation completed the full 10km. 

Glenda Stokes, executive officer of Sunrise said, “Alan Berry has supported Sunrise since our early days with the sponsorship of a car and we’re so grateful that he approached us about the idea of this fabulous event.” 

Alan Berry Motors Suzuki has recently offered Tayler the use of a sponsored car for one year. To celebrate this and at the same time financially benefit Sunrise was what initially planted the seed of the fundraiser in Alan’s mind. 

“Tayler’s a Gizzy boy and a real go-getter. He’s got where he is through hard work so it’s great to be able to support him but also support Sunrise at the same time.” 

At the end of the 25 laps, Tayler beat the Alan Berry Motors team by 314 seconds (5min14sec) which Alan said was much closer than anticipated. 

Alan rounded his $1 for every 1 second donation to Sunrise up and generously donated $350. With all other donations tallied and proceeds from the sausage sizzle which was kindly donated by ABC Construction and A.F Thompson Contracting, the event raised $1060 towards Sunrise’s General Fund. 

As a community endowment foundation, all $1060 from the event will be invested, protected, and grown to keep up with inflation. The surplus investment income will be granted to needy causes throughout Gisborne-Tairāwhiti.