Maze, maize and fright nights for funds
After a mixture of maze, maize and frights helped fund a uniform for every child, Whenuakura School is repeating its unique fundraiser.
This year will be the second year the small rural school of 42 pupils has run their Maize Maze and Fright nights to raise money ‘‘for a rainy day’’.
School board chairman Andrew Hurley said this was a good way of fundraising because the school pays for nothing.
‘‘The thing is with the maze everything’s donated,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s straight profit.’’
He and ‘property man’ Dean Sorensen mowed the maize in the maze themselves on a ride-on lawnmower. The maize is then tendered out, after which contractors come and plough it.
Last year the school made the same amount of money from the maze that they did selling the maize.
Parents volunteer their time on Sundays, from now until March 26, as helping hands and barbecue runners when the maze is open to the public.
They also get their scariest selves ready to participate in Fright Night.
This year the school roll seems to be growing so there’s hope funds could go toward employing another teacher. They will also go towards ‘‘continuing to tidy the school up’’, which Hurley said they’d been doing ’’for the last three or four years, and it’s come a long way’’.
The Maize Maze is held at
‘‘With the maze everything's donated.’’
Andrew Hurley
Whenuakura School and costs $5 for an adult and a gold coin donation for children under 13. The main objective is to get through the maze - fastest time has been 25 minutes - and there is a ‘picture-finding game’ to go in the draw to win a prize.
The Fright Night is in the maze and is R13. It takes place on March 31 and April 1 at 7pm bookings are recommended, phone 027 416 4357.
Sorensen said the Fright Night was going to be ‘‘bigger and better’’ than last year with chainsaw massacres, grim reapers and everything in between.
He said the school undertakes other fundraisers through the year but ‘‘the maze trumped all of that.’’
Hurley said the paddock was leased out to the school’s neighbour for 40 years but this tactic makes more money. ‘‘We’ve turned 300 dollars a year into quite a substantial amount,’’ he said.