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.

Karen Singers
Karen is passionate about creating opportunities for tamariki and rangatahi; she has been involved with Perry Outdoor Education Trust for a number of years, the last twelve as POET General Manager. POET partners with schools to support teacher facilitated outdoor education programmes in low decile secondary schools. Much of Karen’s work involves managing a range of stakeholder relationships, crucial in meeting their strategic outcomes.
Prior to POET, Karen worked in a role responsible for the distribution of funding to NFP organisations.
Karen has extensive governance experience, including the National COGS committee and currently, Outdoor Education NZ.

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.
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!
Meet @h.nterr a student at John Paul College in Rotorua and outstanding golfer. When she’s not out on the golf course you’ll find her with her friends or watching movies. Her dad got her into golf which she admits it’s a really hard sport she stays committed to the goal of going pro. ⛳️
Some of her highlights to date are not only her results and winning tournaments but the friends she’s made in golf and her whanau and golf club support. “I look up to my parents the most because they are hard workers and it’s taught me to work hard in golf.”
Sport is not without its challenges, Hunter has faced injury in the past but used patience, perseverance and resilience to get through it. She’s looking for the Adastra Foundation to support her in connecting with others on the same journey and to learn of pros in the industry.
Already well on her way and committed to her sport she’s aware of other important things as she gets older noting if she could give her younger self some advice it would be “academics and golf need to be a balance”.
Welcome to the Adastra whanau Hunter!🏌🏽♀️ ... See MoreSee Less
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Opportunity! Open for application now.
www.facebook.com/share/v/1ARcao5tir/?mibextid=wwXIfr ... See MoreSee Less
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First Adastra Workshop of 2025 held today at the brilliant venue, Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club.
Our presenters embraced the day to deliver insightful sessions for our talented rangatahi.
Massive thanks for your time
Niwa Milroy, Veerle ten Have, Honey Hireme-Smiler, Erik Panzer and Nicky Franks.
A bunch of valuable new connections made within the 2025 recipient group - may those connections be long and strong 💪
Thank you to our major funders and the venue for a great day.
Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club
TECT
Grassroots Trust
The Lion Foundation
Craigs Investment Partners ... See MoreSee Less
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Previous presenter at our Adastra workshop Julian Dean, is the Ambassador for the Tour of New Zealand - a 5 day stage race and fundraising ride on the South Island’s West Coast. Into the final day today, the riders, from professional road cyclists to first timers on a tour of this size, are all fundraising for various charities.
Fantastic to see a legend like Julz Dean giving back to the sport he had so much success in and encouraging all these riders on their massive efforts.
Allez allez to all these riders on their final stage which culminates at the top of the Crown Range. Whew!! 🚴🏻♂️🚴🚴🏿♀️ ... See MoreSee Less
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Our first workshop with the 2025 scholarship recipients is fast approaching!
Here’s a look at some of our awesome presenters/speakers for the day
⭐️ Veerle ten Have - Olympian and Adastra alumni
⭐️ Erik Panzer - Panzer Performance
⭐️ Niwa Milroy - Toi Toi Manawa, Get Me Started
⭐️ Nicky Franks - Play Creative
All of these awesome people are well established in their fields and will offer support, knowledge and advice on key topics that can help our recipients continue forward with their endeavours.
This workshop would not be possible without the help of the Grassroots Trust. Huge shout out to them and the support they continue to give us and many others in the community. @playcreativenz @veerle.th @getmestartedltd ... See MoreSee Less
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A massive shout out and thank you to a long-term valued partner of Adastra - Brian Perry Charitable Trust. These guys have been around since the beginning and supported a number of insanely talented young people over the years. A select few of these individuals have gone on to become Olympians and/or represent the country on the world stage.
One of these people is Veerle ten Have.
UPDATE 🚨
Veerle ten Have will be attending our April workshop to share her skills and knowledge plus impart some of her wisdom onto our 2025 recipients. They’re in for an absolute treat!! @veerle.th ... See MoreSee Less
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Opportunity for Western BOP athletes open now.👇 ... See MoreSee Less
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We welcome back TECT as another amazing supporter of our exceptional Tauranga youth for 2025 👏🏼
We would not be able to do what we do without TECT. This long list of lucky recipients are benefiting from TECT funding which supports them to do awesome things in their pursuit of excellence!
A massive THANK YOU to TECT from the Adastra Foundation and all of these talented individuals that you are supporting 🙏🏽🙌🏼 ... See MoreSee Less
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We welcome back TECT as another amazing supporter of our exceptional Tauranga youth for 2025 👏🏼
We would not be able to do what we do without TECT. This long list of lucky recipients are benefiting from TECT funding which supports them to do awesome things in their pursuit of excellence!
A massive THANK YOU to TECT from us at the Adastra Foundation and all of these talented individuals that you are supporting 🙏🏽🙌🏼 ... See MoreSee Less
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