Champions of change planning to leap from the sky are taking the ultimate plunge to demonstrate their unwavering support for a youth organisation’s mission.

‘Drop for Youth’ with the Graeme Dingle Foundation is attracting local business people, community leaders and sporting stars to merge their courage with compassion, while calling on others to sponsor their sky drop, or do likewise.

“We want to give it a push,” says Graeme Dingle business development manager Charlotte Brown.

“Fundraising is different in this current climate, and we want to try get as many people as possible to do the sky dive.”

The fundraiser, once called ‘Drop Your Boss’, now has a more inclusive vibe under the ‘Drop for Youth’ with participants completing a sky dive over Tauranga.

“Anyone who wants to jump and raise funds can, they don’t need to be a ‘boss’.”

'Drop for Youth' fundraiser for Graeme Dingle Foundation. Photo: Supplied.

By simply filling out a registration form, participants are then provided with a Givealittle page and a social media post they can use to promote their sky dive, which normally costs around $400.

“There is no fee for registering or for the sky dive but we ask that they raise $1000. We organise everything, we just need you to encourage all your whanau, work mates, besties, perhaps even your neighbours to donate to our cause and once you reach our target, you go skydiving! Everyone wins!

Charlotte says people can also nominate someone they think is brave enough to take the leap “while helping us fundraise”.  

“We’re so excited to have the support of many awesome people this year for our annual ‘Drop for Youth’ campaign.”

Tomasi Cama. Photo: NZ Rugby.

Locals who have registered for the September/October 2023 ‘Drop for Youth’ include Fijian and former NZ rugby union player Tomasi Cama who has recently been promoted to head coach of the All Blacks Sevens team in 2024.

Tomasi has been part of the Kiwi men’s side for 18 years, in a glittering playing career which sees him still the all-time leading points’ scorer for the All Blacks Sevens and second-highest in the history of the Sevens World Series, and which saw him win World Rugby’s Sevens Player of the Year in 2012.

He has also claimed gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and World Cup as both a player and coach.

Joining Tomasi in the skydiving fundraiser will be Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell, Ms Woman of the Universe Jerrie-Lee Ngareta Hill, teachers whose schools benefit from GDF programmes and “loads of local business people” says Charlotte.

“Participants signed up so far are from businesses across the region including KPMG, Cooney Lees Morgan, PMG, Baker Tilly, Sharp Tudhope, ASB, Z Energy, Cav Panel and many more.”

Charlotte says many choose to boost their fundraising along with small events.

“They fundraise in a variety of ways such as organising bake sales at work, quiz nights and raffles,

All of the money raised goes into our programmes.”

'Drop for Youth' fundraiser for Graeme Dingle Foundation. Photo: Supplied.

The Graeme Dingle Foundation is a leading organisation in youth development in NZ. Graeme Dingle Foundation Western Bay of Plenty was founded in 2004 and currently runs the Kiwi Can, Stars, Career Navigator and Project K programmes, helping over 3,800 local young people every year. Funds raised goes to help run these programmes, with hopes to increase the services delivered.

“Drop for Youth is one of our most significant fundraisers each year. The generosity of the participants and the donors enable us to continue our programmes and reach as many schools and rangatahi as possible,” says Graeme Dingle Foundation WBOP regional manager Dan Allen-Gordon.

“The funds raised will be used for our youth programmes in the Western Bay of Plenty region. These include Kiwi Can, which teaches tamariki values such as integrity, respect and resilience, Career Navigator, which gives guidance around work and life choices, mentoring programme Stars, and Project K, a transformational wilderness adventure journey for low self-efficacy youth.

“This is huge for us and super exciting for our young people. We need to raise as much money as possible to make sure we can continue working towards our goal of making our region the best place in the world to grow up.”

“Are you interested in sky diving to support our local rangatahi? We want to hear from you,” says Charlotte.

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