Marathon pedal for kids
By the end of this week, Mana Williams-Eade will have finished a long ride – exactly 6300 minutes of it.
Williams-Eade grew up in state care, works for Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children, and now he’s riding a stationary bicycle for five days in Civic Square to raise awareness and money.
He started pedalling at 8am on Monday and planned to finish tomorrow – his 21st birthday.
At the end of his five-day ride he is looking forward to his birthday present – his foster family, and friends are flying to Wellington to support him.
The length of his ride represents the 6300 children, or tamariki, living in state care.
‘‘I’d hope to see more people aware of the barriers that young people face,’’ he said.
VOYCE Whakarongo Mai – Voice Of the Young and Care Experienced – the charity service for young people living in care – has set up a Givealittle page and by yesterday afternoon $2370 had been donated.
Williams-Eade is not alone in his ride. Volunteers can ride on two bikes set up on either side of him so he can have a minute to eat, rest, or sleep.
He has been training for six months for the bike ride, while working fulltime. He’s also in his third year of studying commerce at Victoria University. This week he is studying on his bike ahead of his first exam on Saturday.
Williams-Eade said that, growing up, he was lucky to have had ‘‘amazing’’ foster parents but not everyone received as much support as he did.
‘‘That’s definitely not a typical experience of people who end up in state care.’’
He works at Oranga Tamariki to help create supported employment opportunities for children in care and, through the ride, he hopes to create awareness of the impact not having biological parents around during childhood has on a person.
His biological parents separated when he was an infant and he doesn’t have contact with them.