Gumboot hike and haka for mental health awareness 27 May 2021 13:45 PM
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I Am Hope Foundation founder Mike King is strapping on his boots for Gumboot Friday.
Starting at midnight, he intends to stomp 100,000 metres around Auckland Domain to raise funds for the foundation s mental health counselling services for tamariki and rangatahi.
He says people are welcome to join him, and bring their tamariki - there will be inflatable obstacle courses,. bouncy castles, food trucks and sausage sizzles.
People are also invited to join a 654-person haka at 6pm in front of the grandstand, led by All Black great Buck Shelford.
Three years ago I remember standing on a podium with you singing your party s praises as you announced that you were spending $1.9b on mental health, he writes. As long as I live I will never forget that day. There was such a euphoric feeling in the air, full of optimism and hope and I believed with all my heart things were about to change, finally we had a government who cared.
But three years on, he says he feels they ve both let everybody down . I know none of this is your fault Prime Minister and I know you truly care about our children but the system is broken and it seems to our most vulnerable Kiwis and their families that no one is trying to fix it, he says.
AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR PRIMEMINISTER
Dear Primeminister
Tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of Gumboot Friday and to celebrate I’ll be walking 100,000 meters in Gumboots around the Auckland Domain to raise $100k that will go towards our $5 million goal.
If we reach our goal it will provide over 37,000 free non stigmatising counselling sessions for our kids. I say non stigmatising because under the current system the only way young people can get free counselling is to go to a doctor, be diagnosed mentally ill, and then go on a long waiting list before being met by an often burnt out mental health professional.