The Full Colour Trust promises a great night out, and some good laughs, when it holds its second fundraiser of the year at the Court Theatre in Christchurch July 22.
The first recipient of the trust, Mhairi Flett, says the play by the Court Jesters, will take an amusing and impromptu approach to the printing and graphic arts industry. She adds that they hope to fill the 300-seat theatre, after filling the Elevate bar for a quiz night in February.
Set up in 2006 to assist people in the printing and advertising industry facing urgent, short-term needs, the Full Colour Trust has so far helped seven South Island beneficiaries including a print account manager, a paper sales rep, an advertising managing director, print managing director, guillotine operator, forklift driver and graphic designer.
Most of the needs, like Flett’s, relate to health. They include a worker suffering industry-related deafness requiring an ear operation; a business owner whose injured child spent months in Starship Hospital, Auckland, needing subsidised travel costs; and a sales rep requiring support to cover the costs of a brain operation.
Flett says, “The trust has financially supported beneficiaries and their families facing various health traumas, to pay costs not fully covered by insurance or ACC and get them back into work in the print, graphics, advertising or related industries. In my case I was facing a bill of around $80,000 for a 12-month course of the breast cancer drug Herceptin which wasn’t funded by the NZ Government at the time.”
Since taking the full course of the drug, Flett is now fit and healthy and enjoying being back at work.
The Trust relies on donations and fund-raising activities which have included events such as film evenings, quiz nights, raffles and over the last few years, proceeds from the PrintNZ charity golf day. Some print-related businesses have nominated it as their charity of choice and donate to it instead of giving client gifts at Christmas. Applications to trust funds are open from the South Island regions of Canterbury, South Canterbury, West Coast, Nelson and Marlborough.
