Enjoying a ‘Movember’ brekkie with the boys at last month’s Tradies BBQ organised by Cambridge Community House. Photo: supplied
Cambridge Community House’s inaugural BBQ Breakfast for Tradies is likely to become a regular ‘Movember’ fixture.
Movember is an annual series of fundraisers held nationwide to promote men’s health. The CCH event at the end of the month raised around $500.
Organiser Jamie Kerr, who is CCH’s whānau support team leader, said the event had been a great success despite having to be organised fast once the offer of ‘Movember’ funding came through.
“We had to pull something together quickly, and as it turned out the tradies BBQ event we decided on coincided with Cambridge ITM’s annual suppliers’ BBQ, so I approached them. When they offered us the use of their space in Carter’s Flat, we accepted gratefully. They were already set up for it, which made planning our BBQ much easier.”
Jamie said the event attracted around 60 tradies. Feedback from the community suggests more would have attended if there had been a longer lead-in time.
His own work with CCH is in the social and family harm space, which meant the BBQ’s focus on men’s mental health was a good fit. Information was on hand to show guests the sort of wrap-around services offered by CCH, and Jamie invited Enabling Good Lives’ connector Maioro Barton along as guest speaker.
“We talked about what we all need to do to maintain our mental health. I spoke about my own mental health then we opened it up to the floor … there were a few blokes who spoke out.”
Also at the event was Milford Cambridge’s Simon Corbett, a man with links to the rowing community. He set up a couple of indoor rowing machines and helped run a fun competition around who could row 500m in the fastest time. There were also spot prizes donated by various local companies.
The good attendance and positive feedback means Jamie is keen to do it again next year.
He said welcome support had come from several businesses as well as ITM, including Wholly Cow, Juice Plus, Sample Room, Shots Coffee Cart and Hunting & Fishing.
A few days later, he heard from Cambridge ITM owner and member of The Give It Back Trust, Nathan Milne, who said the Trust would be prepared to cover the already discounted invoice from Wholly Cow.
“We would have had to dip into Community House funding to cover this if it were not for this very generous offer. We simply could not run these types of events if it were not for the generous support of our community,” Jamie said.
