- A basketball tournament honoured Midge Te Kani and raised funds for her whānau.
- The event featured ten teams, raising over $3000, with additional donations exceeding $22,000.
- Rewi Nankivell, injured in the crash, remains in hospital; the community support continues.
A basketball tournament in honour of the late Midge Te Kani took place last Sunday to bring the Tairāwhiti community together and raise money for her whānau.
Jacqueline Nankivell, 17, and her brother Rewi jnr, 15, were injured in a crash in September that tragically took their mother’s life.
Emergency services were called to the single-vehicle crash in Matawai Rd (SH2) in Otoko on the afternoon of September 4.
Te Kani died a short time after being taken to Gisborne Hospital.
Jacqueline Nankivell earlier told the Gisborne Herald her mother was a well-loved community leader known for her ability to bring people together.
“It was a wonderful day filled with feeling,” Rose Brown, one of the organisers, said of the basketball tournament held at Ilminster Intermediate School.
Brown is a close friend of the Te Kani-Nankivell family from Mangatū Marae.
Ten teams took part in the tournament, with the Psalms taking first prize and the Filipino A team placing as runners-up.
The tournament started with karakia led by Jacqueline.
Participating teams and attendees contributed through registration and koha to a Givealittle page set up by Karyn Sadler, a deputy principal of Campion College, to support Te Kani’s whānau.
The total raised by the tournament was expected to be more than $3000 when all counted up. As of Wednesday this week, the Givealittle page had raised more than $22,000 over about three months.
About 37 local businesses contributed to the day by donating prizes in the form of goods and services. New Zealand Basketball donated signed Tall Blacks T-shirts, which were used as raffle prizes, plus a box of basketballs, bags and other NZ Basketball merchandise that were given away as spot prizes.
Brown said the day was such a success that people were already asking when the next fundraising event would be.
Trust Tairāwhiti, Turanga Health and Whiti Ora Tairāwhiti contributed to the event, with local club and school basketball teams taking part.
Ilminster Intermediate and Campion College also got behind it.
“It was a family-friendly day designed to help lift people’s spirits after what has been a pretty hard year with other road fatalities and weather events,” Brown said.
Rewi suffered spinal injuries in the crash and is still in Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, but his whānau hoped he would be home before Christmas.
Those who wish to donate to the Givalittle for the whanau can do so at givealittle.co.nz/cause/whanau-of-midge-te-kani?=home&refcode=trendingHospital
