Little Things a Huge Hand-up for Kids, Says Mark Wright

For immediate release

12 September, 2013

Little Things a Huge Hand-up for Kids, Says Mark Wright

Actor and Bash Ambassador aboard Variety Bash Sept 20-22,

taking grants to rural Waikato

Actor Mark Wright will be aboard the Variety Bash classic car rally that starts out from Pakuranga Health Camp on September 20, delivering grants, and conducting working bees at rural schools from Port Waikato to Awhitu and Pukekohe to Otahuhu until September 22.

Wright’s a long-term supporter of ‘The Bash’ – the event named for its early bush-bashing days. He’s been aboard since 1996, starting out on the TV2 bus before hitching a ride with other teams.

Key to his support is that all the money raised in New Zealand stays here to help Kiwi kids, “I’m a big believer in sorting out your own back yard first,” and that the charity was born in the theatre.

But what’s kept him involved is that hands-on involvement with the kids, and being part of an event which brings such a cross-section of folk together.

“You see first-hand the real face of the recipients of the grants or the specialised equipment, whether it’s an insulin pump or a liberty swing, and you get the immediate response from the kids and the parents, and their communities, to the point that we’ll return five, ten, 15 years later and they’ll remember, and in their turn drop a coin in the bucket to help today’s kids,” Mark says.

“And I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to be a captain of industry to be able to do something. Everyone has something to offer, whether it’s money, time, skills or talents. The Bashers are such an amazing group of people, they come from all walks of life from mum-and-dad teams to big corporates and you wouldn’t normally see all these guys together, a real corss-section of Kiwi society working alongside each other to give ordinary kids a hand-up, and I’ve never seen that anywhere else.”

There’s a lot of fun to be had, too. “Oh yes, once you’ve been on a Bash you’re pretty much hooked. The teams are all memorable. Go with the Moo Loo boys on their fire engine, or Every Little Boys Dream or FOAM and you know you’ll be in lots of water fights, which is great.”

“I was on Fish Pot’s American fire engine, with the two separate steerage units linked by that long ladder, and they lifted me onto a grain silo for a photo and drove away!”

The Where’s Wally Stihl Shop Silverdale team had him dressed in their red-and-white striped tops and round black glasses photo-bombing school groups and other crews, “and I’ve been on too many other teams to remember,” he says, laughing.

Then he gets serious again. “Variety – The Children’s Charity makes a difference here in New Zealand. It’s the little things that can make a huge difference in an individual child’s life and the Bash does that. It’s not about medical research or the big issues, but addressing quite specific needs in small communities.”

Addressing needs – and bringing fun into those kids lives, too. “Out of big towns the kids don’t get to see celebrities, or vehicles like this for that matter. They’re just blown away by this crazy circus which comes into their life, creates havoc, and when we leave we’ve given them stuff and foamed their principal and we’re pretty sure the teachers don’t get much work out of them the rest of the day!”

ENDS

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