Recently Ray White Paraparaumu participated for the first time in their local Relay for Life.
Relay for Life is a community event that gives everyone a chance to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to cancer and fight back by raising awareness and funds to support the work of the New Zealand Cancer Society.
The Relay for Life Kapiti event was held at the Paraparaumu Athletics Domain over the weekend of the 28th February to the 1st of March 2015. The Ray White Kapiti team was comprised of eight members who all took to the event wearing crowd dazzling ‘uniforms’.
Team members each took turns walking from 4pm until 9am around the 400m track, and totalled more than 17 hours in all. Relay for Life states that there should be a member of the team walking the track at all times – and holding the official team baton (as pictured above). Rachael Steinmetz, owner of Ray White Paraparaumu said “everyone showed great spirit doing whatever was needed from preparing meals to encouraging each other during the long night hours”.
As well as the relay the organisers decided to give participants the opportunity to have a tent each to display or ‘tell the story’ of their respective businesses. A member of the Ray White Paraparaumu sales team, Maree Gopfert, seized the opportunity to showcase her flair for design and home staging, and came up with a winning idea. She dressed their tent as an ‘Open Home’ complete with flags and open home arrows out the front of the ‘house’ which was landscaped with white picket fences and pot plants. The inside was fully furnished with rugs, coffee table, couches, beds, lamps, etc – just like an actual home. A full selection of photos can be seem on the Ray White Paraparaumu Facebook page. – And yes, the Ray White tent was judged the finest display and took first prize.
Rachael Steinmetz went on to say “it is such a worthy cause as well as an uplifting experience and a huge amount of fun. We will definitely participate again next year”.
The money raised by the Relay for Life events goes to the NZ Cancer Society, with a total of $269,500 having been raised throughout the country this year.