Kia ora koutou, e te whānau!
This is Shaun's dad, Eddie.
I reckon there are two things that money should be spent on without much hesitation:
- health
- kids' dreams
And this fifteen-year-old Motueka High School lad has big dreams. For the last three years Shaun has been training hard, competing, and often winning, the juvenille divisions of national Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournaments here in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Shaun has a love for this sport. I've not often come across anyone as determined about anything as he is with these grappling arts. He would train seven days a week if life allowed it. Plus he's been blessed with amazing coaches who have watched him progress under their guidance.
So, when the opportunity arose for Shaun to compete in some of the biggest tournaments in the world, we were swept up in the enthusiasm. We booked flights, accommodation, car rentals and paid for tournament fees. We were mostly through booking the itinerary when we looked at the bank balance and realised, "Oh no, we're broke."
Actually, we've gone into the red on this one to the point where being broke (as in zero balance) would be a pretty significant financial improvement, and would allow us to book our flights back home here in Tasman.
This is where you can help out by buying a raffle ticket (New Zealand residents only) or throwing any spare change our way. We'll put it to good use, we promise. We've booked budget flights and accommodation the whole way. Neither of us consider ourselves entitled. To prove the point, we're keeping an open ledger of our essential expenses, donations and raffle income for the sake of complete transparency. Your raffle entry goes towards these exact expenses. More info on how the raffle will work is in this section.
Feel free to join our Facebook and Instagram pages for videos and updates. We are both super super grateful for any help you can give us.
There's also this poster that you could print out and hang up somewhere. That would be amazing.
We'd love to give shout-outs to local businesses who are amazingly generous and show support. If you're a Kiwi business and would like to contribute to the prize pool, please contact us. We'd like to add your business name (and/or graphic) to the list of supporters below and acknowledge your generosity on social media. Alternatively, if you'd like to remain anonymous, then please let us know.
Ngā mihi,
Eddie Pattillo
[email protected]
+64 204 108 0001
