Starship’s Giant Easter Egg Hunt to Hatch Again

Starship’s Giant Easter Egg Hunt to Hatch Again

The ‘egg-straordinary’ Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt in support of Starship is coming back to New Zealand this Easter.

Following the success of last year’s inaugural hunt in New Zealand, 100 giant eggs created by leading and emerging New Zealand artists, designers and celebrities will again be hidden in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for nearly a month.

The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt will raise funds for the Starship Foundation, a social-profit organisation which supports the national children’s hospital to provide world-leading care for more than 120,000 patient visits each year.

From 12 March to 7 April 2015, the public can scramble (pun intended) to the streets to hunt the stunning artworks and take part for a chance to win the yet-to-be-announced grand prize. The eggs will be auctioned for Starship, 80 on Trade Me and 20 at a gala cocktail event on 31 March in Auckland.

Each egg will be lovingly decorated by a different artist, some of whom are returning from last year and others who are new to the fundraising campaign. Artists include Askew One, Dean Proudfoot, Dick Frizzell, Flox, Keven Mealamu, Mervyn Williams, Misery, Reuben Paterson, Rod Emmerson, Taika Waititi, WORLD and Zambesi.

New Zealand artist Reuben Paterson says The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt is a great way for the art community to support Starship. “It’s about all of us rallying together in some way to show our respect and support for the next generation and for the heartfelt work of all staff at Starship. What better way to celebrate this than with an egg completely covered in glitter as it honours the play, and the child, in all of us? My egg will be wrapped in a hand-painted glitter fabric design from one of my grandmother’s dresses, a nurturing woman whose wing, like that famous idiom, I always felt protected and nurtured under.”

Starship Foundation Chief Executive Brad Clark says, “Starship Foundation was proud to deliver a very successful inaugural Big Egg Hunt for New Zealand in 2014 and is even more excited to partner with our dedicated sponsors once again for The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt in 2015. The Hunt is fun and engages with all ages with vibrant, creative and valuable works of art. We urge everyone to get out and see these fantastic creations and even better, consider bidding on own your very own egg to take home!”

As Principal Sponsor, Whittaker’s is committed to contributing at least $150,000 to the Starship Foundation through the sales of its top-selling Creamy Milk block, which will feature a special wrapper designed by a child of a Starship family. There will also be lots of prizes for lucky hunters to go in the draw to win by collecting eggs through The Big Egg Hunt app.

Whittaker’s Marketing Manager Holly Whittaker says, “We’re proud to be the Principal Sponsor of the Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt again in 2015 after working with Starship to launch the event in New Zealand last year and make it such a success.

“We’re a family-owned company that is proud to support worthy causes such as Starship that make such a difference to New Zealanders’ lives, and we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure it raises as much awareness and money as possible for the charity again this year including providing our free mobile app for hunters,” says Ms Whittaker.

The Big Egg Hunt concept first came about in London in 2012 to engage the public in a fun and interactive way while fundraising for charity. Since then The Big Egg Hunt has grown to include Dublin, New York and New Zealand. It is believed to be the biggest egg hunt of its kind worldwide.

Information about The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt is at www.thebigegghunt.co.nz and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BigEggHuntNZ.

Key Dates:
• 12 March – 7 April: The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt – New Zealand public out and about searching for 100 giant eggs created by Kiwi artists and designers.
• 31 March: Gala cocktail event and auction of 20 eggs in support of Starship.
• 12 March – 7 April: 80 of the eggs auctioned on Trade Me for Starship.

Supporters of The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt:
In addition to the very generous artists who have provided their time and talent to decorate the eggs, many organisations are supporting the campaign in various ways. These include:

• Air New Zealand
• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
• Auckland War Memorial Museum
• Barfoot & Thompson, Starship Five Star Partner
• Britomart Group
• Christchurch City Council
• Colourworx
• Animal Planet
• DFS Galleria
• ECC
• Firth
• Les Mills Britomart
• Mainfreight
• Manuka Doctor Skincare
• New Zealand Maritime Museum
• The New Zealand Herald
• The Moving Company
• Precinct Properties
• Queen’s Arcade
• Republik
• Resene
• SKYCITY
• SKY TV
• Trade Me
• Vector Arena
• Victoria Park Market
• Waterfront Auckland
• Wellington City Council
• Whittaker’s, Principal Campaign Sponsor

Numbers from The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt in Support of Starship 2014:
• $235,000 raised for Starship, announced in April 2014
• Over 4,000 visitors to the final display of gala eggs at Auckland Museum
• Increased foot traffic of up to 40% in key egg locations
• Over 6 million media impressions, almost 500,000 social media impressions
• 75,000 visits to The Big Egg Hunt website
• Over 10,000 app downloads with 56,500 eggs collected and 24 people collected all 100 eggs through the app.

About the Starship Foundation:
• Starship is New Zealand’s national children’s hospital. There are more than 120,000 patient visits to Starship Children’s Health every year by children from all over New Zealand.
• The Starship Foundation is a social-profit organisation that raises funds so Starship Children’s Health can better care for its young patients. The Starship Foundation aims to create meaningful and magical opportunities that enrich the health of every young New Zealander.
• The Starship Foundation raises up to $10 million a year. Donations are extra to Government funding and provide for initiatives such as Starship’s National Air Ambulance Service which brings children from all over New Zealand to Starship for life-saving care, as well as refurbishing older wards, new technology and medical equipment, vital research, boosted family support, staff training and community outreach projects to keep children out of hospital.

About Whittaker’s:
• Established in New Zealand over 100 years ago, Whittaker’s is the only major chocolate manufacturer in New Zealand that ensures quality by controlling the whole manufacturing process – from bean to bar.
• With 100% of its operations in New Zealand, Whittaker’s is proud to be an exporter of quality New Zealand produce, as well as one of the largest employers in the Wellington region.
• For the past three years in a row, Whittaker’s has been voted New Zealand’s Most Trusted Brand and for the past two year has been voted Colmar Brunton’s Most Loved Brand.

ENDS

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