Tina Cross
Tina was touched by the work of hospice when her friend, Gavin, was diagnosed with a terminal illness a few years ago.
Anita Fleming
Being open to change is the first step to personal and business growth.
Sustainable Giving
Charities now have to find new ways to maintain their sources of funding in order to survive.
her inspiration
Tina Cross 
Dancing With a Cause
Well-known singer and entertainer, Tina Cross, joins Aaron Gilmore in this year’s Dancing with the Stars series. Tina and her family were touched by the work of hospice when their friend Gavin was diagnosed with a terminal illness a couple of years ago.
During his 14-month battle, he was supported by hospice services allowing him to make the most of his life. When asked if she would join Dancing with the Stars, Tina saw it as an opportunity, not only to raise much needed funds for hospice but also to raise awareness of this free service, which is available to anyone with a terminal illness regardless of their age and cultural or religious beliefs.
“It is just amazing what hospice can assist with. One of the first things I learnt about hospice through Gavin, is that hospice is a concept not a building.
“Hospice is the way in which someone who is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and is dying, is cared for. It is just amazing. The majority of hospice care happens in people’s homes and why wouldn’t it? After all, where would you rather die?”
Tina says that many people are unaware that all hospice care and support is completely free of charge for anyone with a terminal illness and is available irrespective of age, religion or ethnicity. There is a huge reliance on volunteers to support hospice care. In a single year, more than 5,000 people assisted hospice, equating to around 459,485 hours and this excludes any time spent on fundraising. These hours include gardening, shopping, cooking and serving meals for patients and their families, caring for patients while family have a break, driving people to appointments, delivering library books, reception work, cleaning, retail shop work in the hospice shops and even biography writing.
“There are 37 hospice organisations throughout New Zealand and all of them work tirelessly to ensure patients and their families get the care and support they need. I am really hoping, through dancing for hospice, Aaron and I can raise awareness of this essential service in our communities and maybe encourage people to contact their local hospice to see how they can help.”
Around 50 percent of the funds needed to operate a hospice come through government contracts to deliver palliative care, the remaining 50 percent is raised by the community and this equates to millions of dollars annually.
“Gavin was too young to die and although it’s been almost two years, I still feel teary when I think of his wife, Vanessa and their children. Since Gavin’s illness and death, I have started writing songs, something I just never thought I would be good at. Two are about Gavin and I played them, for the first time, to Vanessa, at Christmas time. It hadn’t seemed right until then even though I wrote the first of these songs during Gavin’s last few months.
Gavin gave me the gift of having the confidence to write my own songs and I am grateful that he stirred so much emotion within me, to do so. I have chosen to support hospice as my charity on Dancing with the Stars not only because of Gavin but because I want to help make all New Zealanders aware of who and what hospice is and most importantly what it has to offer.
We are all terminal – we are all going to die. I want to thank Vanessa for allowing me to bring Gavin and his story into the spotlight for the sake of raising understanding of hospice through my involvement with Dancing with The Stars.”
Tina’s positive outlook to life, and lessons learnt from Gavin’s death, ensures she keeps herself fit, healthy and happy. These are some of her tips and advice she lives by:
We are human beings for a reason! Relationships are the most important aspect in our life. Hospice taught me this. We get very busy doing a whole lot of things, often forgoing time with family and friends to do more. Take time out to just be with people that matter to you.
Is your spirit healthy? The longer you live the more you learn especially about yourself. Be kind to yourself and others and don’t be afraid to ask if you need something. Believe that people are good, as it is amazing what you can receive back when you accept this. Say thanks and give thanks, it does wonders for your spirit and the flow-on effect for others is so worthwhile. Don’t forget to feed your creative side; whether it’s listening to music or taking a painting class with a friend, it will make you a more rounded person.
Look after your body, it is the only one you have! The saying ‘you are what you eat’ is a great rule of thumb. The odd splurge is totally appropriate, but hydrate, nourish and be kind to your body and make sure you move it too! Whatever you are into: dancing, yoga, running or swimming, just do it, and regularly too! Look after your skin, hydrate, moisturise and sunscreen! Have regular health checks, especially if you are approaching or are now middle-aged, including smears, mammograms and mole checks.
Live life! Don’t put off what you can do today whether that’s a simple phone call to a friend or booking that holiday to visit family or a part of the world you’ve always wanted to see – do it today because no one knows what tomorrow might bring. Fear is not a reason to put things off.
You can support hospice by voting for Tina on 0900 89 811 or texting Tina to 8981 or by purchasing a hospice tee shirt through www.ezibuyhospice.co.nz with ten dollars from the tees going to the hospice of your choice. For more information about hospice, log on to www.hospice.org.nz
By Niki Schuck
her insight
Anita Fleming 
A little Fish Making a Big Difference
In the world of high fashion, where everyone is striving to be different, we meet one fashionista who wants people to copy her.
Fresh from winning the Emerging Sustainable Business Leaders Award at the 2007 Sustainable Business Network Awards, Laurie Foon is riding high on a tide which seems to be turning. Several years ago it would have been difficult to imagine someone from the fashion industry winning a sustainability award, but Foon’s Starfish label has shown what is possible.
Brought up in suburban New Zealand, Laurie credits her mother’s passion for shopping and great dress sense for her own interest in fashion. After leaving school, she worked for a tailor in Wellington who endured her enthusiasm and fostered her talent, before she headed for the bright lights of London.
London, with its immense wealth and crass consumerism, was a turning point for Laurie. “I didn’t like the emotions that fashion was creating,” says Foon, who considered leaving an industry she felt she didn’t quite fit in to. But then she thought, ‘if I change my dream then who’s left in it?’ So instead, she decided to do it her way. She had always known that she would start her own business and even carried an old book around with all of her ideas in it. And so Starfish was born.
Central to the Starfish brand is the concept of enduring design. Far from being throwaway garments, Laurie’s clothes are created for their functionality, quality and wearability. Laurie doesn’t want her clothes to just be hot right now, she wants them to be a lasting favourite in people’s wardrobes and to fit in with people’s personalities, rather than screaming this is a Starfish dress. But there is no mistaking that her business is about style. Laurie cycles to work in her Starfish clothes and thinks she “Should be able to get off her bike and still look hot!”
When starting out in the fashion business back in New Zealand, times were tough and much of the drive towards sustainability came from the necessity to be frugal. Laurie soon found that by minimising waste you can save costs as well as the environment. In the beginning, she used to send her clothes to stores on black plastic clothes hangers but found it was getting expensive to continually buy these. Now the stores send them back to be reused, it’s a classic win-win situation.
Starfish clothing is 100% New Zealand made, as Laurie believes it is critical to the fashion industry to keep a manufacturing base in New Zealand. Flying in the face of the globalisation trend, it seems many people are turning back to buying quality, locally-produced goods. The company has a policy of using New Zealand made fabrics as much as possible and has begun using organic cottons as well as looking at other more sustainable fabrics, such as Merino and Hemp, which both use substantially less resources to produce than cotton.
Laurie is quick to praise the work of the Sustainable Business Network (SBN). Although she only found out about the SBN recently, it was an obvious fit for her. Undertaking the Network’s ‘Get Sustainable Challenge’ may have been seen as a natural progression by some but to Laurie it was a chance to, “See how bad we were.” In reality, says Laurie, “What other people saw was what we were doing, not what we weren’t.”
What surprised her most about the Challenge was that it didn’t just focus on the environmental impact of the business but also on the social impact. To Laurie, it has always made sense to consider her staff and her community in the way she runs her business, but the ‘Get Sustainable Challenge’ highlighted to her that this was all just another part of being sustainable. In particular, she notes that having a child-friendly workplace is good, not just from a social point of view but for helping her business retain key staff as they progress through their child-raising years.
Despite winning her SBN Award, Laurie says she, “Still grapples with what we are doing and our effect on the environment.” Sometimes she wonders if she is really saving the world by recycling a few buttons or belt buckles, but hopes that what she has created at Starfish will have a flow on effect. Unlike many fads, sustainability is not something that we can afford to let go out of fashion.
So what next for Starfish? Right now Laurie is excited about some new ranges of footwear she is stocking, which are selected for their sustainability and fair trade credentials. She is also working hard to get her suppliers to give her more information about the fabrics she sources, believing that “cheap fabric costs something to someone, somewhere else.”
By Paula Short
her inform
Sustainable Giving 
The business of ‘giving’ is changing. Charities now have to find new ways to maintain their sources of funding in order to survive. Mark Cassidy, the newly-appointed national manager of the Centre for Philanthropy, discusses the importance of passionate giving and why women play a pivotal role in today’s aid organisations.
Charities need to become sustainable in their giving; no longer can they afford to survive from one-off donations. The Guardian Trust Centre for Philanthropy helps 530 charities in New Zealand to establish their structure and revenue. Mark has been with Guardian Trust for 12 years and is a specialist in wealth management. “Our message is that ‘it’s good to give’, and the centre helps further that approach by helping donors give in the most knowledgeable and continuous way,” says Mark.
Mark’s experience in supporting local charities and providing solutions for funding is his passion. “My work is extremely rewarding, not many people see what their clients want to achieve in terms of the impact that will have on the world.” Likewise, Mark believes that charities need to be passionate about their purpose. “It’s important to find out what you’re passionate about. For example, women have had a long involvement and interest in community as well as business work. Women have great organisational and management skills and they are focused on what they want to achieve, so it makes sense that they would have a pivotal role to play in ‘giving’.” Mark says that it is important each of the clients he works with have passion for their cause.
The centre works with charities to develop a ‘knowledge base’, which can be used to pair philanthropic donors with charities or causes that match their objectives. “It can be anything from medical research to sports facilities. People have quite personal reasons for how they want to use their money, and our responsibility as a trustee is to ensure that their wishes are respected and the terms of the Trust are adhered to.” Mark says that giving is about putting something back into the community and how this is done differs for each individual.
Philanthropy by definition is the desire to give with no expectation of return. Mark says that most charities fill the gaps in society and provide solutions for areas that may get overlooked by conventional funding sources. Given this, charities are not only vital for society but they play a very real role helping communities and individuals. “It is important to find out the best way to support your interest. For example, you can grow a fund over a longer period of time to meet the costs of giving over time.” Mark says that charities need to be strategic otherwise they will rely on initial grants or donations and have to reapply every year.”
Currently the centre oversees more than 450 charitable trusts, providing approximately $26 million of funding annually and they have managed to achieve this by making charities strategic. “It’s important for charities to get advice on how to be strategic about their growth and survival. A key to this success is providing sustainable and increasing funding through sound investment of the trust funds.” Mark says continued ‘giving’ is important and one of the key ways to becomes sustainable is to get sound advice on how to leverage off current funding to create sustained sources of revenue.
But in order for charities to be successful Mark says they need to ensure they articulate what they want to achieve. “It is important to be specific about what you want to support but also to be flexible in your approach. Things can change. For example, if your charity is supporting guide dogs and then guide dogs are not needed, you would have to find another area that was compatible with your funding interests, like maybe an area of medical research.” Mark says that in order to have a successful charity you need to have a clear vision for what outcomes you would like to see from the funding. He says that a clear idea of the end goal will help to articulate the charities purpose.
While charities are an important part of philanthropy Mark maintains it is important to get involved at any level. “Find out what you’re passionate about and then get involved at any level. Promote generosity by ‘giving’ your time. It’s not all about money. Volunteering is extremely important and often overlooked.” If anyone is interested in starting a charity they should first give of their time. He says that once you become successful with giving of yourself you may be more likely to become successful with finding the resources to support your cause.
By Michelle King
