MEDIA RELEASE: Signed All Blacks jersey and one year’s advertising on a Nurse Maude car- a few of the auction items on the block at the Nurse Maude Black Tie Event fundraiser.
Christchurch – Wednesday 30th September, 2015– Ticket sales close tomorrow, Thursday October 1, for the Nurse Maude Black Tie Event taking place at the Rydges Latimer on October 10th 2015.
It is the third year the event has taken place and organisers expect this year’s entertaining, fine dining, and fundraising festivities will be bigger and better than ever. Last year over $18,000 was raised and organisers hope to smash this total with a huge range of auction items including an All Blacks jersey signed by the 2015 Crusaders team and advertising for 12 months on the back of a Nurse Maude car.
Jane Rollings, Service Manager for Nurse Maude Hospice, says the event will provide people with a great opportunity to get dressed up and have a fantastic night out while supporting a vitally important part of the Canterbury community. “The auction items are outstanding this year,” Jane says. “Having the All Blacks jersey signed by the entire Crusaders team including their Rugby World Cup players has created a lot of interest in the event.” Other items donated for auction include a 10 week fitness training package, Baroque Pearl Swarovski jewellery and advertising for 12 months on the back of a Nurse Maude car.
“We’d love to see the car advertising auction lot attracting bids over $1000,” Jane says. “It’s important to remember that Nurse Maude provides care to over 400,000 people per year throughout the Canterbury community. That means your business’s advertising will have enormous visibility as the Toyota Yaris vehicle will do a massive number of kilometres every week in our region.”
Many people are familiar with Nurse Maude, Jane notes, so the winning business will have very positive brand association as they are directly supporting a professional charitable organisation that helps out hugely in the community. “It’s so difficult for businesses to get their message out there these days,” Jane says, “this is one way they can do it while we assist people every day in Canterbury via our fleet of 166 cars. A starting bid of $1000 would be pretty amazing value.”
Nurse Maude Hospice and business group BNI New Zealand have collaborated to put the event on and Jane says she’s been overwhelmed by the positivity when meeting businesspeople who are involved in BNI. “Many of these businesspeople have been touched by Nurse Maude in a personal way and they are excited to support this event through donations. Everyone is looking forward to a big night.”
Event co-organiser and one of the Christchurch Director Consultants for BNI NZ, Alison Poulter, says the fundraiser has fast become a major event on the Christchurch calendar and everyone involved is excited that this year’s night could raise a record amount. “Now that there’s less than two weeks to go we’re hopeful of getting close to 200 attendees on the night,” Alison says. “As for the amount that could be raised, that depends on who the spenders are in the room and what we secure as auction items – I’d like to see over $25,000!” The MC is Brendan Reilly and The Starlets will play at the event.
As in previous years a number of other businesses will provide an exceptional array of goods and services to be auctioned on the night; check out the Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/NurseMaudeBlackTieEvent. Tickets for the fine dining fundraiser are available until Thursday at www.nursemaudeblacktie.co.nz.
