Help me make my children's picture book a reality

It's been a dream of mine to write a kids picture book about my Great Grandfather the All Black for a while now, and lockdown has given me the perfect opportunity to put pen to paper and finish it.

Henry (my Great Grandfather) walked over the Southern Alps in the middle of winter to represent New Zealand against Australia back in 1893, and the book titled 'What it takes to be an All Black', has all the ingredients for a cracking good bedtime story.

And now having just been made redundant due to COVID, I've got even more incentive to get get it illustrated and published.

If you'd like to contribute something to help me get the book illustrated I would be hugely grateful. I've found a very enthusiastic and award winning illustrator who is extremely excited about the project and I think she'll do a great job. The total cost will be around 6k, of which I've already managed to scrounge together 3k.

And the book is just the start of a much bigger idea...a website, and a whole series of books helping to convey New Zealand's early heritage to our kids.

I also want to promote it as a fundraising tool for local Rugby clubs, and use it to promote the West Coast as a great road-trip destination. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I had coffee with a quite a notable rugby personality the other day, who's pretty keen to support the book.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.