Auckland – 29 September 2021 – Northland’s Oromahoe School was today named as the first winner of a $10,000 sports grant in AA Insurance’s Big Little Sponsorship.
Lockdown didn’t stop the insurer from announcing the North Island winner of its annual sponsorship programme for primary schools, with support from Eden Park Trust – it simply became a virtual event.
Today, Oromahoe’s children gathered in their school houses for a reveal party which started with a pre-recorded video from former All Black Keven Mealamu, AA Insurance’s Head of Brand and Marketing Melodie Vickars, and Eden Park CEO, Nick Sautner. The children were then treated to a catered morning tea.
“This is a wonderful celebration and we’re delighted to present Oromahoe School, that has a supportive community around them, with this very deserving prize,” says Melodie.
This year marks the competition opening to the rest of New Zealand, with the winning South Island primary school to be announced after the October school holidays. In addition, one lucky teacher from each winning school will be awarded the ‘Ultimate Eden Park Experience’ (at an appropriate time) to acknowledge their commitment.
The competition received over 3,200 nominations from 771 primary schools, which made the decision a difficult one for judges, she says.
“Most nominations we received for Oromahoe mentioned that they currently have a makeshift bamboo goal post set up, courtesy of the community, after their previous goalpost disintegrated,” says Melodie. “They would love to get a proper goal set up not only for the school, but for the whole community to use for sports practice and on the weekends.”
Keven, who has been behind the campaign as its ambassador since it began in 2018, is an advocate for kids getting involved in sport from an early age.
“It’s good for kids to play sport; they talk to people and learn to work together. They also learn respect for their team-mates and opposition. And they learn that it takes hard work to achieve something worth achieving.
“The Big Little Sponsorship is a cool way to champion sport in schools and help invigorate the passion for sport,” says Keven.
About AA Insurance
AA Insurance is an independently operated, New Zealand-based joint venture between the New Zealand Automobile Association (NZAA) and Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited (VINZL). Since 1994 we have demonstrated trusted expertise in home, contents and car insurance in New Zealand, and in 2018 introduced commercial small business insurance. We underwrite our own policies and sell direct to New Zealanders. Our 930+ staff look after over 480,000 customers with 970,000 policies.
We proudly partner with Variety NZ and Eden Park and have been consistently recognised by: Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands (since 2011) and Quality Service Awards for Car, and Home and Contents Insurance (since 2015), Kantar Customer Leadership Index (since 2019), Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers (2011-2018), and the Colmar Brunton Corporate Reputation Index (since 2015) that recognises New Zealand’s most successful companies. AA Insurance was also named Consumer NZ People’s Choice award winner for car, home and contents (2019 and 2020).
AA Insurance has an AA- (Very Strong) Insurer Financial Strength Rating given by Standard and Poor’s (Australia) Pty Ltd. For further information visit aainsurance.co.nz.
For more information please contact:
Media Team, AA Insurance, 027 406 1787, mediacontact@aainsurance.co.nz
