4th October 2005

Neil Finn Gives The Biggest Hand Of All To Childfund New Zealand

The bids came flooding in for the final few hours as the ChildFund Celebrity Handprint Auction officially closed earlier this week. Following a frenetic bidding war over several of the celebrity created works of art, an impressive total of cash was raised. This sum will now go towards the purchase of an incubator for Suai Hospital in East Timor.

Top bidder for a celebrity handprint was an Auckland based individual who paid $620 for the framed handprint by NZ musician Neil Finn. On being told of his successful bid the winner said "I am planning on putting it up on the wall beside an Edmund Hillary sketch of Mount Everest which I purchased in another charity auction. I like the thought of two great New Zealander's up on the one wall together".

Trelise Cooper's print fetched the second highest amount, after being snapped up by for $260, and in third place was a funky team effort from the cartoon hands of Bro' Town which raised $230.

Paul Brown, National Director of ChildFund New Zealand, says he's thrilled with the results of the auction. "It was great to see some of our best-loved celebrities put their hands up to help ChildFund, and also to see how many Kiwis responded to that by supporting the auction. We hope they had fun bidding!" Paul continues "The incubator will save dozens of babies each year, and I know the Suai community will be grateful to the wonderful generosity of New Zealanders."

One ChildFund artist who's handprint art work received lots of interest was Dr Don Brash, the winning bidder of his handprint explained "How could I pass up the chance of purchasing an item hand signed by a potential future Prime Minister of New Zealand! It will be a great conversation piece to hang on our dinning room wall".

Dr Don Brash's handiwork attracted a total of 92 bids whilst others attracting high levels of interest were Frankie Stevens at 74 bids and Dominic Bowden on 42 bids.

The Celebrity Handprint Auction on TradeMe raised $1962 in total, which will go towards the purchase of an incubator for Suai Hospital in East Timor.

ENDS

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