Holiday prize for winners

Press, 15 July 1986, Page 15

Holiday prize for winners

A mother and baby contest with a difference will be held at the Riccarton Mall Shopping Centre tomorrow and on Thursday and Friday. Judges will award points for bonding between mother and baby and for health and general fitness of the children.

The centre’s manager, Mrs Sue Gunn, says the contest is planned as “a bit of fun,” but it will also serve a serious purpose. Money collected as entry fees ($1 per mother and baby) will go to the Wharenui After School Programme (W.A.S.P.).

The children will be divided into three sections: up to six months, seven to 12 months, and 13 to 24 months.

The prize for the overall winner will be a week’s holiday in the South Island in a motor home provided by New-

mans Rentals, $lOO worth of groceries and $5O worth of petrol vouchers. Other prizes will be provided by Johnson and Johnson, by the Tommee Tippee company and retailers. Milestone Photos will take a colour picture of every mother and baby and these will be presented free to the en-

trants. The fathers and grandparents have not been forgotten. For them a nappy-changing contest will be held, the contestants to be blind-folded while they change the nappies on large dolls. For spectators mere will be quizzes and prizes. The heats will start at

10.30 a.m. each day and the final at 1.30 p.m. on Friday. The After School Programme was started early this year and is sponsored jointly by the Riccarton Borough Council and Wharenui Primary School. It caters for primary school children from the Riccarton area.

It was found mat economic necessity meant that many children had empty homes to go to immediately after school. W.A.S.P. gives these children and many others a place to gather where they can be entertained and entertain themselves under adult supervision. The programme runs from 3 to 5 p.m. every school day at a room specially set aside for it at the school. The children are supervised by Miss Bev Yee, with the help of volunteers.

Mr Dayle Hadlee, principal of Wharenui Primary School would be pleased to hear from any parents who could spare a little time to help with the programme. Children have to be formally enrolled and the numbers attending vary from day to day. So far over a hundred have joined.