Husband and wife sports duo, former Black Cap Dion Nash and former Silver Fern, Bernice Mene, are hoping to offer some personal insights on sports and raising kids over breakfast, as part of a unique fundraising initiative for the Foundation for Youth Development.
Bernice said she and Dion decided to get behind the charity's latest fundraiser - the Non-Event of the Year - by giving fans the chance to win breakfast with either her or her husband, as a way of helping support New Zealand youth.
"Both Dion and I have had a long standing relationship with the Foundation for Youth Development, which currently helps approximately 17,000 young New Zealanders each year via its Kiwi Can, Stars and Project K programmes," Bernice said.
"Nowadays youth have influences coming at them from all directions. There are a multitude of issues that they have to deal with aside from just peer pressure. All these elements can prove to be quite challenging when young people are trying to develop confidence and find themselves."
Bernice said she faced a few challenges of her own while growing up.
"I had to get to grips with being 12 years old and 6 feet tall. With the support of my family I used it to my advantage and was named for the Silver Fern squad at age 17."
However, she said making the squad at such a young age came with additional struggles.
"Being such a young age and representing New Zealand, there were huge expectations placed upon me. I think it's really important that young people are given as much support and encouragement as possible to develop into healthy and confident individuals."
Foundation for Youth Development mountaineer and co-founder, Graeme Dingle, said the Non-Event of the Year is a non-traditional, no frills, no nonsense fundraising initiative.
"In these tight economic times, we don't want Kiwis to fork out excessive amounts of money to attend a charity dinner. There's no dressing up and no need to get your hair done just to spend a night with people you don't really know, snacking on fiddly finger food. Instead, we're inviting people to help the youth of New Zealand by doing their own thing, whether that's at home with their family or with a group of friends," Dingle said.
The breakfasts with Bernice and Dion are being auctioned online via the official Non-Event of the Year website - www.nonevent.org.nz - bidding closes on 2 April for Bernice's auction and 5 April for Dion's auction.
Aside from the auction, people can also select one of five different ticket options for the Non-Event of the Year starting at $50 and going up to $1,000.
"Ticket holders then receive a Liquor King voucher which can be used to select alcoholic or non alcoholic beverage packages to help them host the perfect non-event from the comfort of their own lounge. There's no black-tie dinner, small talk or C-listers."
As well as purchasing a ticket or bidding on an auction item, New Zealanders can make a straight donation of $20 in support of young Kiwis.
Funds raised during the six week campaign will be used by the Foundation for Youth Development to further its programmes.
