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From the desk of Chloe Wright
 Dear friends,
As this year draws to a close and we reflect on all that has occurred, I hope we will look back on it as a year of enlightenment.
Many have suffered through separation, loneliness, job and business loss, but surely there can be no loss worse than not being able to be with loved ones as they leave this life, or new life comes into the world. The healing will go on for a long, long time to come. But we have learned to value being ‘present’ with those we love, and the hush of quiet mornings and evenings that slowly drift to a close.
Something of a miracle has occurred when we have seen examples of the planet healing itself from the quiet that surrounded COVID-19. Who could have imagined it would take this to discover our children’s dreams; the unique personality that came with them at their birth. Our own opportunities for small acts of kindness. Our pets who didn’t have droopy eyes and ears as we once normally rushed away from home.
COVID-19 brought so many more opportunities to widen our reach, to connect with those whose passion for putting a hand out to give a hand up would not be stopped. We had Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting and received report after report about organisations such as Brainwave, Parenting Place, Parents Centre, Young Ocean Explorers, (oh my goodness, environmental champions!), Great Potentials, Everybody Eats, SuperGrans (an outstanding community of people who are guides and mentors to many suffering families), and the literacy and music programmes we so love about how they adapted to make sure they reached those who most needed succour during a time of isolation.
Janet Lucas, Founder of New Zealand Spelling Bee, kept the programme running and is now ‘champing at the bit’ to bring the love of words and the ultimate competition of the Spelling Bee to more schools and more students in 2021.
Wayne Mills of Kids' Lit Quiz has completed another year of nail-biting competitions for students whose passion is reading. What Wayne and Pah do literally takes my breath away. I would recommend to anyone who can to take the opportunity to follow these competitions and attend the regionals and final. You will never be the same again 😊.
As the House of Science extends its reach and more students (and teachers) develop a love of science as it is now taught, we see great potential for our youth to be leaders in a global sense. Don’t even get me started on robotics! Well, all right then, I have got myself started. This is an area of such exciting technological innovation and transformative possibilities that to be asked to support it was thrilling, although I might not tell them that! Janet Van, a woman who came to this country as a child refugee, now an engineer, is leading robotics on a trajectory where again, we can be world leaders, but perhaps more importantly she is paving the way for all students to be able to enter this arena.
Some say with many of these initiatives that the Government should be taking on these responsibilities. But quite frankly we would have to seriously consider if the Government could achieve the outcomes that passionate, invested people could. We see our role at WFF as growing the good, and our contribution may just be the one spoke in the wheel that is missing. An absolute passion for empowering our youth and working with the experts to enable our youth to reach their potential creates a multiplicity of joy for us.
On the other hand, the social inequities that our people suffer draws further away from any enlightenment expected from a first world country. How can we call ourselves a first world country if, 20 years ago, we were ranked 17th out of 41 developed countries surveyed in the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card for its child wellbeing outcomes, now we are 35th. It is a shameful lack of attention to the science, data, and care for humanity that the physical environment (e.g. building cycle paths in areas that are suicidal to ride on) is given full-scale attention but the one-off, unique, irreplaceable human being is neatly filed away as a statistic, a unit of funding or a problem to be overcome - but let’s table it for the next meeting. Mothers Matter is not filing anything away. COVID-19 cannot continue to be an excuse; bureaucracy has faces and names. Call them out.
My wish for us this festive season is that we can all take comfort in our families and friends, stay safe, and find joy in being. Life is a gift we cannot exchange. Gently unwrap it and treasure what may come from it.
“We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can prepare our children for the future”. – Franklin D Roosevelt.
Arohanui,
Chloe Wright ❤️
Founder/Chief Executive – Wright Family Foundation
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 Kids' Lit Quiz champion for 2020 is Havelock North Intermediate School, including, from left, students Niamh Horsfall, Poppy Buller, Ben Sutherland, and Ben Stanley.
Three-way tie makes history for Kids’ Lit Quiz
A sudden death play-off was required to determine the winner of the 2020 national Kids’ Lit Quiz final after three teams tied for first place – the first time in the event’s 29-year history.
The honours went to Havelock North Intermediate in the Hawke’s Bay, followed by Tauranga Intermediate School in second place and Southwell School in Hamilton in third place.
“These intrepid kids put in a stunning performance. The atmosphere was electric, with total hush as the play-off unfolded,” says quizmaster Wayne Mills.
“We had an eclectic set of questions covering authors, titles, symbolism in literature, poetry and non-fiction.”
Almost 1700 competitors took part in the annual event this year, aimed at encouraging children to read for pleasure, widening their range of books and to celebrate their literary knowledge.
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Mothers Matter update
Mothers Matter Founder Chloe Wright was honoured to be a guest speaker at the Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA) Māori maternal mental health hui at Ōrākei Marae in Auckland recently.
She joined an outstanding line-up of speakers, including Dr Maria Baker, Dr Naomi Simmonds,
midwives Camille Harris and Waimarie Onekawa (as seen on the television show ‘My Māori Midwife’), Professor Helen Moewaka-Barnes, Dr Hinemoa Elder and new māmā Lizzie who talked about her birthing experience during lockdown.
Chloe spoke about the need for change in birthing and postnatal care in New Zealand and creating better outcomes for all whānau involved around pregnancy and birth.
We now have more than 4100 signatures on our Mothers Matter petition. Have you signed and shared it? Find it here and help make a difference for our mums.
You can also make your voice heard on Facebook.
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Breaking bread in Pāpāmoa
A pay-as-you-feel dining concept that aims to reduce food waste, food poverty and social isolation is seeing people from all walks of life break bread together on Monday nights in Pāpāmoa.
Everybody Eats operates out of Bluebiyou – an upmarket restaurant overlooking Pāpāmoa Beach which has generously offered itself as a venue to bring the community together. About 120-160 people have been dining there each week since September.
The pop-up restaurant serves three-course meals prepared and served by volunteers using food rescued by Good Neighbour. Patrons pay as much or as little as they can afford.
While donations from diners cover most of the operating costs, sponsorship from the Wright Family Foundation will meet the cost of consumables, pay some staff costs and top up the rescued food.
Everybody Eats also operates out of Auckland and Wellington. The Wright Family Foundation worked with Everybody Eats and Blue Light earlier this year to provide meals to vulnerable families in South Auckland during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re thrilled to support Nick Loosley, the Founder of this humanitarian enterprise, to offer Everybody Eats in Pāpāmoa,” says Chloe.
“Paying what you feel you can shares the load, and, supported by a great team of volunteer staff and chefs, our community can only benefit in shared meals and connections of people.”
Bluebiyou chef Matt Schaeffer plating up desserts for diners at the Everybody Eats pop-up restaurant. Photo: Fluro Grey
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Robots to take centre stage in Palmerston North
Robots may not be taking over the world just yet, but they will be taking over Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre on 12-13 December when the 2020 VEX IQ Challenge National Championship comes to town.
Presented by Kiwibots and the Wright Family Foundation, the competition will see up to 70 primary and intermediate school teams from across New Zealand pit their colourful robots against each other in a game-based engineering challenge. Winning teams will qualify for a spot in the VEX World Championships in Dallas, Texas in 2021.
Sponsorship from the Foundation will subsidise team entry fees and allow kura kaupapa Māori (Māori immersion schools) to participate at no cost.
Chloe says Kiwibots offers an exciting programme that heralds the future for our students and our country on the global stage.
“We totally embrace this initiative that extends to students who may not normally consider this as an area they could explore. Bringing together young minds with their eyes on the future, and their hands ready to create the future, is nothing short of blissful.”
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A new arts programme at the City Gallery Wellington will allow young children and their parents to create art together.
Curiously Good Art Club
Wright Family Foundation has partnered up with City Gallery Wellington to offer a Curiously Good Art Club for children aged 1-5 years and their parents to create art together.
The art club’s weekend sessions will get underway in 2021 and will include elements of messy play, painting, drawing and collage, as well as photography, sculpture and sensory play.
Each session will start with a Curiously Good Story Time in partnership with Wellington-based publisher Gecko Press, linking the ideas and material between the stories told and the art-making sessions.
Chloe says the Wright Family Foundation is thrilled to be invited to be part of an initiative that brings parents and children together in the pursuit of messy play and creativity.
“So many of us have stored the artwork our children created while they were in that magical stage of wonder. The memories from this time of shared delight will remain with them. There can be no greater joy than to see one’s child blossom through the arts.”
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 Matt Norman spoke to English students at Tauranga Girls’ College and local writers as part of the Wright-Murray Residency for Speculative Fiction Writers.
Writers’ residency winner shares knowledge with students
Christchurch writer Matt Norman shared his writing knowledge with English students at Tauranga Girls’ College and local writers last week while he was in the Bay of Plenty as part of the Wright-Murray Residency for Speculative Fiction Writers.
Matt was chosen as the recipient of the inaugural writer’s residency, including a week in a Bay of Plenty country retreat and mentorship from award-winning New Zealand writer Lee Murray, for his novel, Dark Days, an edgy teen romp, infused with fantasy, magic and death.
The Wright Family Foundation sponsored the residency alongside SpecFicNZ to help identify speculative fiction writers working in isolation and offer support.
“It is important to nurture the arts and artists, as they are a vital link to creativity and the overall wellness of society,” says Chloe.
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 Samuel Wright presents Sharna Steer from Otumoetai College with the 2020 Stars Peer Mentor Excellence Award.
Graeme Dingle Foundation Awards
Congratulations to all the 2020 graduates of the Graeme Dingle Foundation Western Bay of Plenty Stars peer mentoring programme!
Stars is a 12-month programme that supports, motivates and positively reinforces Year 9 students during their first year at high school.
The programme includes ‘four steps to fun’, including an adventure camp, peer mentoring, giving back to their community through community projects, and community adventure, where the students learn about what is available to them within their community.
The COVID-19 pandemic threw up some interesting challenges this year but during lockdown peer mentors supported the Year 9s through online lessons on mindfulness, self-care, time management, and stress management. After returning to school they focused on goal-setting.
Thanks to sponsorship from the Wright Family Foundation, Otumoetai College is the first Bay of Plenty high school to be involved in the Stars programme and it is now in its fourth year.
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 Celebrating the Great Potentials Foundation 30th anniversary recently were John Patolo, Research and Evaluation Manager; Dame Lesley Max, Co-Founder, Co-Chair and Senior Advocate; Mark Veale, HIPPY National Director; and Sonya Masoe, MATES National Director.
Great Potentials Foundation 30th anniversary
hloe and Wayne Wright joined the Great Potentials Foundation at the Auckland City Art Gallery recently to help celebrate the Foundation’s 30th anniversary.
The Wright Family Foundation is a major funder of Great Potentials’ HIPPY – Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters – which operates in 40 low income communities from Kaitaia to Christchurch. HIPPY has benefited about 25,000 children and their families over the past 28 years.
Co-Founder, Dame Lesley Max, says well-nurtured children and young people in well-functioning families contribute to safe communities and a prosperous nation.
“We all know that there can be no safe communities or prosperous nations, or just nations, without nurtured children and young people.
“The Wright Family Foundation’s investment in HIPPY is critical to the ability of Great Potentials Foundation to continue to enable children to succeed throughout their education and to enable empowered and upskilled mothers to move into further education and better employment. It is truly an intergenerational programme.”
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 The 2020 Kupe Scholars.
Supporting the leaders of tomorrow
The Wright Family Foundation is supporting the leaders of tomorrow by sponsoring one University of Auckland student each year for the next five years to receive the prestigious Kupe Leadership Scholarship.
The scholarship offers up to 20 scholars each year an exciting experience of personal growth and challenge alongside their honours, postgraduate diploma or masters courses at the University of Auckland.
Each scholar receives one-on-one mentoring from an acknowledged and respected leader in their field. Following a three-day orientation in February they then engage in leadership workshops throughout the year, drawing on the expertise of top facilitators, the wisdom and knowledge of their peers, monthly meetings with their mentors, as well as interaction with a broad range of guest presenters.
“The University of Auckland is delighted to partner with the Wright Family Foundation on this significant project which will support leadership in New Zealand,” says Executive Chair of the scholarship, David Downs.
“We have a shared mission to grow New Zealand’s future leaders, and the Foundation’s support for the scholarship will make a material difference to the future of Aotearoa. That you to Chloe, Wayne and the foundation for your support and partnership.”
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Join us on Facebook
The Wright Family Foundation Facebook page is a hub of positivity where we share the “growing the good” message, and we’d love you to join us there.
We share interesting articles and snippets about fantastic organisations and people who share our values.
The page is a great resource which makes it easy for you to share the Love Grows Brains messages and videos on your own Facebook page.
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Quote of the day
“Leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”
John Maxwell
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