Recently, BNI Harbourview held a novel event to support Hospice North Shore that proved to be a big hit and could be replicated by other chapters around the country. BNI Harbourview put on a Masterchef style competition at the North Shore Hospice in September. The chapter has about 20 members and they each brought in baking for morning tea on family day at the hospice, which was then judged.
BNI Harbourview is based on Auckland’s North Shore and has a long history of supporting the local hospice. The chapter fundraises and donates annually to the hospice – last year they raised about $3000 and presented it as a gigantic cheque. This year they decided to do something a bit different. Carl Shaw, the Education Co-Coordinator for the chapter, says they wanted to provide the hospice with some tasty treats and have some fun with it.
The chapter encouraged members to bake something and bring it into the hospice on family day when patients, caregivers, volunteers and staff would be in attendance. They held their normal meeting at the hospice and organised the competition for the tea room. Members had the opportunity to look around the hospice, view the remembrance room and see the great work that they do – which was quite emotional for some as you might expect.
Afterwards everyone congregated in the tea room for morning tea with the members’ baking providing a sweet indulgence. Moira Marcroft, Fundraising Manager at Hospice North Shore, noted all of the dishes were stunning and there was some heated debate at judging time. I’m very pleased to note that no one achieved a score of ‘wouldn’t feed it to my mother-in-law’ on the voting form, and the result was extremely tight – just two votes separated first and second place.
The winner of BNI Harbourview Masterchef 2013 was Carl for his ‘delectable’ cheese sticks. Carl says that he was up till the wee hours making them and Moria reports that they were a big hit. Check out the photos of Carl’s winning entry below:
The event was relatively simple to set up and proved an enormous success. BNI Harbourview should be congratulated for their initiative and for providing other chapters with some food for thought (sorry) about future fundraising events. Any other chapters out there with members who like to bake?
