About Our Team
Our vision is success for extraordinary young New Zealanders on the national and international stage.
The Adastra Foundation was established in 2007 to provide financial and mentoring support to extraordinary young New Zealanders in their pursuit of excellence.
To date, the Adastra Foundation has awarded over 1000 scholarships and totalling over $2,000,000.
Trustees
Graeme Maw - Chair
After an enthusiastic but innocuous career in junior soccer, badminton and rugby union, Graeme has accrued over 20 years’ experience leading international sports programmes, and developing successful athlete and coach pathways.
These include stints with Queensland Swimming, British and NZ Triathlon, Welsh Rugby Union, UK coaching and Millfield School in England.
Graeme has the distinction of having represented three different nations in support at summer Olympic Games, and been Chef de Mission for Great Britain at the World University Games.
When not supporting others, Graeme can be found riding various bicycles, hiking up or skiing down mountains, or exasperating his family and livestock on their Waikato lifestyle block at Tamahere.
Kevin Burgess
Kevin Burgess has been a community pharmacist in Cambridge since 1981 and had a long and active involvement within the Cambridge community, serving on both sporting and community organisations, including past chair of the Adastra Foundation.
He has been involved in sports administration since the mid-1980s and became a life member of Hautapu Rugby Club in 2012.
Kevin has been a judge at the Waipa and Waikato secondary Sports Awards for 15 years and is a passionate supporter of rugby, rowing, netball, cricket and lately, cycling.
He has also mentored/sponsored numerous athletes over the years.
A joint founder of Perago Trust for promising athletes in Cambridge, Kevin is also a partner of Inside Running, a sports management company.
Jennifer Palmer
After six years as National Grants Manager for the Perry Foundation, Jennifer became the General Manager of the Brian Perry Charitable Trust in 2010.
In this role she has overseen the development of the Te Awa River Ride – a cycleway alongside the Waikato River – and played a key role in the development of the Home of Cycling’s Avantidrome.
She also managed the development of Podium Lodge, a Cambridge facility aimed at supporting the sports and recreation market.
Jennifer is also a trustee of Sport Waikato, the Home of Cycling Charitable Trust and a former trustee of the Skycity Hamilton Community Trust and the Waikato Institute of Leisure and Sports Studies.
Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Jennifer is married to Craig and together they have twin daughters.
Jenna Keane
Jenna was born and raised in Central Otago but has been in the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region for the past 7 years. After 4 years in the event industry as the Secondary School Tough Guy & Gal Challenge she transitioned to roles in both Women and Girls and Youth Engagement at Sport Waikato.
A new opportunity now sees Jenna employed by the NZ Police as the Waikato Physical Education Officer, continuing her passion of both physical activity and community work.
Understanding some of the pressures and expectations youth face in the ever-evolving world of social media and their online image, puts her in a good place to support our youth as they pursue their passions.
Physical activity and sport is an important part of her lifestyle and she continues to play social sport and do CrossFit. Although not musically trained herself, some of her family have followed this pathway and Jenna is excited to be more engaged in the music and arts scene.
Alison Wieringa
Alison, born and raised on a family farm in Walton, has played, coached, and mentored NZ netballers finest.
Coach of New Zealand A, Magic, Northern Force, provincial and age group teams, following a playing career that saw her reach the top level, she has a passion for helping young people strive to achieve. Add in her experience leading Welsh Netball as their National Performance Director, Netball NZ selector, mentoring for Tania Dalton Foundation and judge on the BOP Sports awards panel for 10 years, and she brings a huge range of experience to the Trust.
Having worked in health and sports management roles, she’s well practiced in managing teams, developing leaders, and looking at opportunities for growth.
Music has been part of her life and this role provides the chance to engage in the performing arts arena alongside the sporting scene.
New challenges for Alison see her managing the Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service, enjoying playing golf alongside her husband, and keeping a track on their two children who live in Sydney and Wanaka.
David Sidwell
David is heavily involved in music education throughout NZ at both secondary and tertiary levels, currently managing the Department of Music & Performing Arts and postgraduate studies in the School of Media Arts at Wintec. He holds a Masters Degree in Arts Management from Central Queensland University and is currently completing a PhD.
David’s involvement in music, education and theatre as director, musical director, composer, orchestrator/arranger and pianist include many successful productions in NZ and Australia; The Rocky Horror Show, Cats, Les Misérables, Oliver starring Richard O’Brien as Fagin, The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia!, Evita, Starlight Express, Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon, Sister Act, Bonnie & Clyde, We Will Rock You, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Chicago.
As an accomplished pianist, David has worked with numerous New Zealand singers, performers, recording artists and featured as the pianist for the New Zealand Film Archive touring road shows.
David has been awarded an honorary institutional medal from Wintec for his forty-year contribution to the arts, as well as a Merit Award from Musical Theatre New Zealand. In 2014 he was honoured with the prestigious ‘Freedom of the City’ award, an accolade bestowed by Hamilton City recognizing David’s services to the arts and culture in the city over the past thirty-five years.
Honey Hireme-Smiler
Honey Hireme-Smiler, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Haua, Ngati Whakaue. Honey is a dual rugby league / rugby union international who has been an exceptional flag bearer for New Zealand women’s rugby and rugby league.
As a former Black Fern and Kiwi Fern, she brings a career spanning 18 years at international level. Her commitment, passion and dedication to her sports saw her appointed as a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for Services to Sport.
Honey has 10 years experience working within the health and disability sector previously as a community programme manager, and a senior disability sport advisor with the Halberg Foundation. She currently works as a Sky Sport presenter/commentator and has recently been appointed the role of cultural advisor at Hospice Waikato. Honey continues to give back via coaching, mentoring, governance and various ambassador roles, ranging from school and community to representative and international level. Her values for family are strong; she believes that sport has the power to bring people together and create strong foundations for families, teams and communities to grow.
Advisors
Mike Chunn
Mike Chunn is CEO of the Play It Strange Trust which implements music programmes – songwriting, recording and stage performance – across New Zealand schools.
After graduating Bachelor of Engineering – Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Auckland University), he started out on his professional musical career as bassist with Split Enz and Citizen Band between 1972 and 1980.
Then he ran Mushroom Records and Sony Music Publishing from 1981 through to 1991.
From 1992 to 2003 he was Director of New Zealand Operations for the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).
Mike was appointed CEO of Play It Strange in November 2003.
Don't Be Shy. Get In Touch.
If you are interested in working together, send us an inquiry and we will get back to you as soon as we can!
Sponsors
The Adastra Foundation acknowledges the support of:
Our Supporters
Meet @ciaranmanningg !Born and raised in Mount Maunganui, currently attending Tauranga Boys College, Ciaran loves swimming and surfing, and lives by the values of resilience, discipline, and enjoyment. His proudest achievements include placing 3rd at the Junior North Island Championships, 4th in the U17 Junior National Championships, and representing New Zealand in the Trans Tasman competition earlier this year.
At age 10, Ciaran aspired to be a top footballer but later found squash in intermediate school and hasn’t looked back since. In the future, he hopes to place within the top 3 at the U19 Junior Nationals and make the NZSS Senior Team. Ciaran lives by the quote, “If you have to do something, you may as well give it 100%,” and he does just that. He’s motivated to keep pushing with his squash and hopes to gain a scholarship to a US university soon to study Physio and improve his world ranking.
Ciaran said, “I applied for the Adastra scholarship to help me attend major tournaments—both nationally and internationally—and further improve my game. I’m also super grateful for the opportunity to work with a sports psychologist, which has helped me further in my sport.”
Ciaran mentioned how he enjoyed the workshops as they were jam-packed with tons of valuable information and said, “I strongly recommend others to apply for this scholarship; it has something to offer for everyone.” As always, a massive thank you to all our funders, especially @tectnz for their continuous support! ... See MoreSee Less
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Meet @rubihart_ Born and raised in the atāhua city of Gisborne but has been boarding at Hamilton Girls’ High School since Year 10! She has a huge love for being around Tangaroa and froths a bit of surfing! Rubi values loyalty, leadership, respect, and her three proudest achievements have been taking the risk of moving to Hamilton to further pursue her passion for rugby, captaining her school’s 1st XV for two years, and coming back from injury with the mindset of being better than she was before and even went on to win the recent Chiefs Manawa competition!
When Rubi was 10, her goals were to become a Black Fern, and that is still one of the goals she is working towards right now! She’s excited yet again to lead her team at this year’s Schools National Rugby Championships top 4 with the hope of coming away victorious later in September!
A quote that sticks out for Rubi is “everything happens for a reason”. A cool wee fact that aligns perfectly with this quote is that Rubi had a forced break from rugby due to a nasty collarbone injury, which put her on the sidelines for some time last year but allowed her to discover a passion for photography!
Rubi says she applied for the Adastra scholarship to pursue further opportunities and implement learnings into life and sport! “I am very grateful for the funding and support, and definitely recommend people to apply if they would like further support in personal development.” Rubi would like to thank her mum for all the sacrifices she has made to get her into the position she is in today, and a massive thank you to Adastra for supporting my passions!
📸 @davemills.sportsphotography ... See MoreSee Less
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Meet @shyrahtuliau Born and raised in Hamilton, Shyrah attended Hamilton Girls’ High School. As a child, her dream was to become a Silver Fern, but her passion for Rugby blossomed in High School. Currently focused on becoming the best Athlete she can be every day, Shyrah draws motivation from her siblings and the young girls in her community who look up to her! She hopes to excel in either Rugby Union or League and would also love to have the opportunity to give back to her community, particularly supporting underprivileged children who lack the resources she’s been fortunate to access!
Shyrah takes pride in her achievements, notably representing New Zealand at the Global Youth Rugby Sevens Tournament in 2022 and 2023. Honoring her grandfather and father’s sacrifice of migrating from Samoa in search of better opportunities here in Aotearoa.
Shyrah has taken inspiration from a quote shared with her by Rhys from WRU: “Don’t let your sport be the only thing you’re known for; let it be the person that you are inside—your kindness, leadership, or even humor. Because once your time runs out on the field and there’s no rugby left, it’s just you.”
Shyrah said a friend who was an Adastra recipient last year really enjoyed and benefited from the program and encouraged her to apply. The support she has received has really helped her in ways that she didn’t know she needed help with as an Athlete, such as performance psychology. She often finds it hard to tune out all the distractions and deal with pressure while playing Rugby, but with the help from Dom and Erik’s presentation, she’s taken away techniques to help her focus and breathe! The funding from Adastra has not only been helpful for Shyrah as an Athlete but has also been greatly appreciated from a holistic and supportive aspect, as Shyrah comes from a low-income, single-parent family. Shyrah says, “I definitely recommend to everyone out there who has a dream or an ambition to take the chance and apply to Adastra.” Thank you again to all our funders who support each of our recipients!
📸 @rugbystudio - @oneshot_nz ... See MoreSee Less
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With the face-to-face workshops done for 2024, we wish all our recipients a successful and satisfying rest of the year.
Thank you all for embracing the challenges we throw at you including the amazing Sami Conrad & Sylvester Green for your dance and trumpeting expertise. 👌
Go get out there and smash those goals and have fun!!!
We couldn’t offer these opportunities without the incredible support of our funding partners and sponsors.
Thanks a million to:
⭐️ Grassroots Trust
⭐️ The Lion Foundation
⭐️ Brian Perry Charitable Trust
⭐️ TECT
⭐️ Craigs Investment Partners
⭐️ Merito & Hill Family Codi Merito
⭐️ Construction Advantage Limited
⭐️ BDO Tauranga ... See MoreSee Less
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Workshop session 2 was Performance Psychology with Dom Vettise and Erik Panzer which developed further skills on understanding and dealing with pressure.
Always insightful and providing a session with learning examples and practical skills to go away with and work on.
We are privileged to access to such knowledgeable presenters for our workshops! ... See MoreSee Less
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First up for our July workshop was an awesome session delivered by @codimerito a member of our Adastra alumni, collaborating with colleague Callum Malcolm from Craigs Investment Partners
Such important skills and lessons to learn on budgeting and showing appreciation to those who support our recipients.
We are incredibly grateful for our ongoing relationship and the time these sponsors put into our programme.
Thank you 🙏 ... See MoreSee Less
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Meet @elliott.pugh !! Born in Germany and raised in Tauranga, where he attended Bethlehem College. Elliott’s core values revolve around dedication, discipline, and patience. These values have encouraged Elliott’s progression in his sport which has flowed into his success including a few of his proudest achievements which are placing 4th at the Year 9 Cross Country Nationals, 2nd at the Junior Boys Cross Country Nationals, and taking out the top spot for U18 at the Marra Triathlon back in 2022.
At the age of 10, Elliott’s main goal was to become a professional football player, and currently, his aspirations include winning an NCAA title, representing Aotearoa at the Olympic Games, and pursuing a career as a professional runner!!
Elliott applied for the Adastra Foundation scholarship because he saw it as a valuable opportunity to learn and connect with peers who share similar ambitions!! Elliott said, “He greatly appreciates the support and funding provided by the Adastra Foundation. The assistance I have received has been invaluable, and I would enthusiastically recommend their program to others.” We wish you nothing but the best for your future endeavours, a massive thank you to all our funders, and a special thank you to @tectnz for your support in Elliott and all our Tauranga-based recipients! ... See MoreSee Less
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We remember how your first session of track cycling at the Adastra workshop put a mega-grin on your face Siobhan.
Love that you’ve continued with the challenge and seeing what you’re accomplishing! 🙌 ... See MoreSee Less
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Meet @erinwyllie_squash , a talented Squash Athlete hailing from Bath, England, now living in Tauranga where she attends Otumoetai College! Erin holds some incredible values close to her which include gratitude, passion, energy, ambition, and kindness.
Erins proudest achievements include making the “A grade” at just 16, representing New Zealand in the Trans Tasman team, and winning the NZ Secondary Schools Tournament 3 years in a row as well as making it into the NZ secondary schools team who face the aussies every year!
When not on the court, Erin finds peace in watching sunrises and sunsets, especially by the beach or on hikes, where she journals her thoughts and goals. She finds a good balance to ensure Family and Friends are still a priority!
Since age 10, Erin’s goal has been to excel in squash and climb the rankings. Her motivation stems from early morning practices with her dad, instilling a relentless drive to stay ahead in her sport! In five years, she aims to be a top-ranked international player, advocating for Squash globally and pushing hard for a chance to represent Aotearoa in the Commonwealth Games and potentially the Olympics!
Erin lives by the motto, “If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all,” and applied for the Adastra Scholarship to support her journey to major tournaments and enhance her game. Erins says “having this support will definitely benefit my Squash game because it isn’t all about skill and fitness and I am so grateful for all the funding”. As well as @tectnz supporting our Tauranga based recipients, we are delighted to welcome BDO as a new sponsor to our programme this year, who are following Erin’s journey closely. We appreciate your support of our recipients hugely!! ... See MoreSee Less
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