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Help more children see that the only boundaries they face are those they believe are there

$25 of $5,600 goal
Given by 2 generous donors in 11 weeks

Help us continue our Break the Boundaries events. We take children with special needs to their boundaries and help them break them!

Nationwide

In 2015 SmileDial held our first Break the Boundaries events, each event was designed to take children with special needs to their boundaries and, with support, help them push through them. We took two children sky diving and a couple of months later four more children (and a parent each) were taken on a white water rafting weekend. The rafting event utilised specially designed harnesses which enabled two of the children (whose disabilities require full time use of a wheelchair) to partake in this event. This is the first time in the world children with this degree of special needs were able to go white water rafting.

In February 2016, we will be holding our third event so we can help more children see that the only boundaries they face are those they believe are there. Due to the success of the white water rafting event in 2015, we would like to provide this opportunity to another 4 children and a parent or caregiver each. We will be making some additions to next year’s event, one addition is a "survival" course. Each participant will be met at the overnight camp (after a full day of white water rafting) by a member of the New Zealand Military who will conduct an evening of survival training. Participants will need to forage for food including catching fish (or eels) for dinner and gathering edible foods from the surrounding countryside. They will also build their accommodation for the night (there will of course be tents and food available if required!), start a fire and prepare the food.

This event will show children with special needs they can do so much more than they and other people believe is possible. At the end of the weekend they would have pushed themselves to their boundaries and broken them, they will return home with a new found sense of accomplishment and pride.

The budget for this event covers transport from Christchurch to the rafting and camping location, all meals, hiring a rafting company, the hire of the special harnesses that make this possible and a team of helpers including 2 survival training experts. The cost covers all costs for the entire team including 4 children with special needs, 4 parents, 1 SmileDial representative and a trained medical helper.

The total cost for this event will be $5600.00 for 13 people total (4 children, 4 parents, 5 staff and helpers)

RAFTING COSTS $300 per person $3900.00

FOOD COSTS $100.00 per person $1300.00

VEHICLE HIRE AND COSTS $400.00

The team will include:

Kelly Dugan, SmileDialNZ Founder.

Peter and James, our survival experts and manly men type of hunter gatherers.

Jeeza Williams, the founder of Making Tracks NZ, a company that provides extreme activities to people with special needs.

SmileDial's involvement (page creator)

As the Trust Manager for SmileDialNZ, I am 100% behind this project and have seen the difference these types of experiences make.

About us

SmileDial provides support to families who are raising children with special needs or in need of ongoing medical care. SmileDial first started as a support group where caregivers could come together to support each other, vent frustrations and share milestones together.

We have since grown to having almost 1000 members in our support group, and even more registered with us. We now host coffee groups around the country, provide much needed medical and therapy equipment to families, provide advocacy for families, and we have helped make changes in the community to improve accessibility for our members.

Most importantly, we provide mental and emotional support through mental health referrals, by helping our member access councilors and other mental health workers.

SmileDial has been running for 7 years, and we are one of the few charities in New Zealand where 100% of donations that we receive go to the families we support. This includes money raised through our Givealittle pages.

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Latest donations

trish llochore
trish llochore on 12 Jan 2016
awesome thing you are doing:)
$15
Guest Donor
Guest Donor on 07 Dec 2015
$10

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This campaign started on 16 Nov 2015 and ended on 5 Feb 2016.