Marlborough Chapter - Launch Night

We were thrilled to launch the Marlborough chapter of the Inspire Foundation last night at the ASB Theatre here in Blenheim, where over 200 people gathered to help us celebrate and honour the first 3 of many grantees. We were also honoured to have Sophie Pascoe as our guest speaker.Her talk told us of her journey so far, and we gained some insight into her sacrifices to be the world champion she is today.It was moving, gutsy and humbling to hear her story, and inspiring? Absolutely. We were also very privileged to have her coach Roly Crichton and her Dad, Garry there too.Sophie is in the middle of training for the Commonwealth Games in April, so we are beyond grateful for her taking the time to come to Marlborough.While she was here, Sophie and Roly also gave their time to the local swim club, Roly having some training sessions with them, and Sophie swimming with the team while she was training, the benefit to these kids cannot be expressed, they were exhausted but had fire in their bellies and a spark in their eyes.

We were also thrilled to be able to give out our first grants to 3 extraordinary Marlburians – Olivia Sheat – Opera, Quinn Udy – Squash, and Liv Bishop Mountain Biking.The speeches these young people gave were a credit to them, and their achievements so far are inspiring, and we wish them well on their journey and are excited to welcome them to the Inspire family.

We also were delighted to have the Inspire Foundation founders, Paul Wright and Bob Davison with us too.

It was an incredible night and we are very excited to see where the Inspire journey takes us and look forward to the next round of grantees – applications open 15 January!