AIMES Honour North Harbour's Brightest Stars

World-class athletes, rower Juliette Haigh and triathlete/duathlete/cyclist Rebecca Spence each received a $20,000 cash boost to their career at the 2006 North Harbour Club AIMES Awards held at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna recently.

The two young women were named joint overall winners of the 2006 North Harbour Club AIMES Award for Excellence - which earned them each a cash grant of $12,000 - and joint winners of the 2006 North Harbour Club Millennium Institute of Sport and Health AIMES Award for Excellence in Sport, which gave them an additional $8000 each.

The Awards, in their eleventh year, are hosted by the North Harbour Club and are open to North Harbour residents aged 25 years and under. They honour North Harbour's hottest young talent - those who are outstanding achievers in either the arts, information technology and science, music, education, sport or community service.

The following are the recipients of the 2006 North Harbour Club AIMES Awards:

2006 North Harbour Club AIMES Award for Excellence (Overall award)
Joint winners: Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Spence ($12,000 each)
Juliette Haigh, 24, won a silver medal at this year's World Rowing Championships in Eton
Rebecca Spence, 18, is a current double world junior champion in duathlon and cycling

2006 North Harbour Club ASB AIMES Award for Excellence in the Arts
Dmitri Ivanov ($8000)
Dmitri (Dima) Ivanov, 22, is a marine designer and student

2006 North Harbour Club Massey University AIMES Award for Excellence in Information Technology and Science
Hayley Reynolds ($8000)
Hayley Reynolds, 25, is an award-winning bioengineer

2006 North Harbour Club Corelli School of the Arts AIMES Award for Excellence in Music
Julia McCarthy and Sarah McCracken ($8000 each)
Julia McCarthy, 23, and Sarah McCracken, 23, are violinists

2006 North Harbour Club Lion Foundation AIMES Award for Excellence in Education
Chye-Ching Huang ($8000)
Chye-Ching Huang, 23, is a scholar and solicitor

2006 North Harbour Club Millennium Institute of Sport and Health AIMES Award for Excellence in Sport
Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Spence ($8000 each)

2006 North Shore City Council Service to the Community Award
Cameron Calkoen ($8000)
Cameron Calkoen, 22, is a community ambassador and national champion athlete

2006 North Harbour Club Emerging Talent Awards
Caroline Gray, dancer; Richard Chen, violinist (also recipient of a $5,000 CD production voucher at the Corelli School of the Arts); The Electric Confectionaires, musicians; Blake Hansen, scholar; Thomas Reynolds, scholar; and Tom Ashley, windsurfer. ($2000 each)

The North Harbour Club has raised and distributed more than $675,000 to foster the talent and achievements of talented young North Harbour people over the past 11 years.

Ross Finlayson, general manager of the North Harbour Club, says this year's Awards winners were of a particularly high calibre.

"We are so fortunate in the North Harbour region to have such brilliant young people in diverse fields, and the AIMES Awards are our way of providing the very best of them with unconditional financial assistance and the recognition they deserve," he says.

"Our winners this year are, without exception, outstanding and inspiring. They have already proved this by their achievements so far – and our hope is that winning an AIMES Award will help them continue to even greater heights."

The North Harbour Club supports business, cultural, sporting and recreational activities in the region and promotes a spirit of pride and a 'good citizen' and 'good neighbour' ethos.

Major award sponsors for 2006 were ASB (Arts), Massey University (Information Technology and Science), Corelli School of the Arts (Music), the Lion Foundation (Education), Millennium Institute of Sport and Health (Sport), North Shore City Council (Service to the Community), Benefitz, Beachside Health Club and the Bruce Mason Centre.

As well, this year's AIMES Awards were funded by a group of North Harbour Club members who, under the banner of "Building North Harbour", contributed $75,000. They included: Peter Wall, of Multiplex; Ian Calderwood and Mike Antoniadis, of Jonmer Projects; Dave McAlpine, KEA Property Group; John Algie and Sue Stanaway, of Bayleys; John Bishop, of Kawaroa Consultancy; Gary Monk, of Intersea; Graham Collie, of Atlas Concrete; Andrew Hiskens, of Colliers International North Shore; Trish Blackmore, of A.C. Blackmore; Phil Brosnan, of Naylor Love Construction; Bill and Greg Smale, of Smales Farm; Kris MacCauley, of Alliance Construction; and Alan Wiltshire, of Obsidian Wines. Non-members who also gave generously were Adam Reynolds, Symphony Group, and Scott Gray-Pearson, of CB Richard Ellis.

Chairman of the judges Mike Antoniadis (Director, Jonmer Projects) was joined by Sarah Dunning (CEO, Harbour Sport); Peter White (North Shore City Councillor and Beachside Health Club owner); Clive Sergeant (National Sales Manager ME Business), Simon Lamb (Principal, Takapuna Grammar School), and Henry Duncan (Head of Sport and Recreation at AUT).

ENDS

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