Trailblazers

Last Sunday some of our Trailblazers and Trailmates (volunteer mentors) took on the Crater Rim Ultra at Hansens Park.

What a great day of running!

There was sunshine, smiles and lots of support for each other. Everyone gave their best, navigating some big climbs and rocky, narrow trails.

Special shout out to those who got placings in their age group in the 6km Valley View event, and to our volunteer extraordinaire Byron who completed the 53km Crater Rim Ultra in just over 6.5 hours. Wow.

Well done team green! We’re proud of all of you 💚💚💚

We are delighted to have successfully gifted two trampolines to whanau in need of some well deserved respite.

We truly hope these items give you even just a little break from the demands of parenting our beautiful but sometimes challenging neurodivergent tamariki and/or children with disabilities.

I was lucky enough to get a treadmill from Individualised Funding (Government Funding) only days before the rules changed. Now like many families I am unable to use most of it because very few people have the skills or will to look after my high needs child who will very rarely leave the house. This treadmill absolutely saves my sanity - supporting both my mental health and my physical wellbeing.

At Trailblazers we understand that respite is in the form that your individual circumstances dictate.

We are excited to have one more trampoline to be collected, delivered and built for one more whanau very soon.

This is where any term fees are directed and please if you’d like to donate I will put a link in the comments.

A huge thank you to Hercules Instant Shelter for helping us pull this together in partnership with PBT Couriers who, when they heard we were struggling to transport the trampolines, jumped in and did it for free 🙌

A massive thank you to Susan and whanau for building the trampolines - a task not many people would volunteer for 🤣

We look forward to gifting more items to support mental health this year as we raise more funds 💚

Before I forget, a very special thank you to our recipients and their tamariki that made this process just so very delightful 💚

ALL HANDS ON DECK! - We NEED your help to build a trampoline for a deserving whanau in the local community. Help put smiles on some faces!

On Saturday thanks to the amazing people at Hercules Instant Shelter and PBT Couriers we will be delivering trampolines to one of our two deserving whanau so they can gain some respite whilst their tamariki do some jumping!

This is a shout out for you to give back to the community - especially if your child has benefited from our programme, we would love it if you would come and join us for a short period of time to help assemble one.

Date: Saturday 21st after delivery - time TBC and Sunday 22nd Sept
Location: an address in St Martins - this will be shared to those that sign on to help us.

Message our page or email [email protected] to offer your time.

GO ON!!

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

We are thrilled to announce that next week we will be awarding three well deserving families from the community with a gift/gifts that they have been unable to purchase since the Government changed their disability funding rules.

Because we understand that “respite” is as and how you all each and individually need and via whatever means you can achieve it - and not in a one size fits all, simple solution.

We hope it helps a little.

Thanks to those that supported our fundraising efforts at Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra (KMBU) so that we can collectively ease a little strain on whanau in struggle.

Wishing Jo day full of happiness and celebration!

As the founder of Trailblazers, your commitment to positive youth development has touched countless lives, helping young people grow and thrive.

Your leadership and passion inspire everyone around you. May this special day bring you as much joy as you bring to others. Happy Birthday 💚

A little special preview of our mahi ....

Behind the Blue Jo Ryder

Let's go Green! 💚💚💚

At Forest Run Fest.

What a great day out!

If you are interested in joining the Go Green movement as a volunteer TrailMate runner, or for your 10+ year old child as a Trailblazers crew member, or as a whanau team - please get in contact - [email protected]

Or give Jo a call on 021 192 6674 (work number)

From Tuesday we shift our training to the South / hill side of Christchurch in preparation for our next events.

All set up and ready for an awesome day ahead!

See you all soon 💚

Yesterday at Trailblazers we acknowledged all our fabulous volunteers.

Without our crew of dedicated TrailMates we would not be able to support our tamariki.

Our volunteers keep our tamariki emotionally and physically safe on the trails 💚

Great fun on the trails today Bottle Lake Forest today as we prep for the Forest Run Fest. fast approaching!

Looking for us at an event? Look for our new Flag!

Here's Caydee, one of our Trailblazers tamariki claiming some land out at Bottle Lake Forest.

The crew are out running today to practice for the upcoming Forest Run Fest. Where 15 of our runners and volunteers will be lining up to take on various distances.

Another great session at South New Brighton!
Thanks team 💚

What a great first session over in South New Brighton!

Our focus was on TEAM, to encourage connection and promote a sense of belonging. Tamariki worked so well, supporting one another over the trails.

We finished up on the beach and a quick game of Octopus.

We are looking forward to next week. We will extend the distance a little and throw in some new running based games, perhaps even a quick relay on the beach at the end to really test those legs and lungs!

We are EXCITED for our term ahead!

Trailblazers are moving to the East side of Christchurch for the first half of term 3 as our crew prepare for the Forest Run Fest. event.

Your newsletter will be out this weekend with all the details - from the basic structure of the session, to where to park, what to bring, maps of the trails, which awesome TrailMates you will see there to help guide and encourage tamariki throughout the session and more!

We will also be facilitating a system where whanau can connect to make life a little easier via some car pooling options!

This term we are encouraging more whanau involvement ... stand on a turn point on the trail, or take part in the walking section, all with the opportunity to cheer tamariki on and throw out some high 5s!

Lets go team! See you Tuesday.....GO GREEN!!!!!!!! 💚

Jo

(photo credit to wikipedia)

If you havn't yet donated, please do.

So many families are feeling the impact of the change in disability funding rules. They are struggling to get a break.

We have heard from solo parents of children with multiple diagnoses. Parents that cannot get a break - even just time to shower and go to the toilet uninterrupted is a dream.

Help us brighten some pretty stretched lives.

Trailblazers hope to support 5 special families with items that will help ease their stress. By easing stress in a family's life, we help build resilience and improve outcomes for all.

We know that a child living in a stressed state/environment is less able to thrive. Please donate even a little so we can help these people.

We will be updating you with the outcomes after the weekend.

Laps for Lives Laps for Lives : Make a donation today to support Laps for Lives

Here at Trailblazers we are lucky to have so many fabulous volunteers… here is one of our newer TrailMates in his day to day (work) life.
Thanks for keeping our streets safe Simon - and our tamariki safe and supported on the trails.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/7DiUR2LgFNzK6Pjs/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Good to see the boys in blue on the beat in Cathedral Square! They are part of 10 officers that will regularly patrol our inner city streets

For those of you who missed out on our epic day at Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra (KMBU) here’s some great footage from one of our Trailblazers crew!

KMBU Krayzie Kids Race My second video, this one from the Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra Kids Race, with TRAIL BLAZERS run club.A super fun 6.7km trail run at Spencer Park.

What a great end of term event at MoveX Christchurch !

After a weather disrupted term. We still saw some great resilience building and improvements in our tamariki.

We look forward to coming back refreshed in term 3, as we work together towards Forest Run Fest.

Remember to find your local parkrun New Zealand to keep the fitness up over the holidays. You will find us at our favourite Hagley parkrun course Saturday 8am!

Thanks to the volunteers for giving up their time this term, and all our participants and whānau 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

We headed back out to Spencer Park this morning to pack up and watch the runners still toiling away at the Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra (KMBU)

We watched the start of the 30th lap, all 16 of these runners made it back to complete 201km, and 12 set off for their 31st.. some incredible stories and many Personal Bests being run.

An amazing weekend, we couldn't have asked for better weather for our kids to run yesterday, not too hot, but the sun was shining!

We had 12 of our young runners join us out on course, and 3 of our volunteers running in the ultra. Byron (127.3km!) , Zig (60.3km!) and Jo (60.3km!) did an amazing job

A total of 322.9 kilometres run by our Trailblazers team 💪🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Thank you so much to those that have supported our fundraising efforts. We will leave the page open for a few more days to capture any last generous donations. We will use these donations to assist our whānau we support.

https://laps-for-lives.raiselysite.com/

A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.” — Steve Prefontaine.
Today our Trailblazers crew took on the 5k Forest Run Fest. Its a big thing to enter an event and turn up, but these tamariki overcame their nerves and smashed it. Our training in the hills really helped with the sprint finishes too! Thanks to our amazing volunteers who bring their calm positivity and sense of fun 💚

There is something magical about running trails in the winter light. Today our tamariki ran about 5kms in preparation for an event in a few weeks time. And because Trailblazers is all about team work, our faster runners collected the rest of us on their way back down. There was a bit of walking for some, so each week we will try to run a bit further and, if we feel tired walk 30 steps before starting again 💚💚💚