Charity begins at home

December 19, 2022

BFA love to support their local region and this year are sponsoring ten local young people to take part in outdoor camps. This is run by the Escape Adventurous Journeys Charitable Trust, a Rotorua based trust.

BFA director, Craig Kilmister, said they first got involved when he helped Escape Adventurous Journeys move from a company structure to a charitable trust. The company needed a different vehicle to support the work they wanted to carry out – getting more young people into the outdoors and reducing barriers, such as cost, for them to do this.

Escape’s core values are based around giving people an adventurous journey in the outdoors - an escape from their everyday life. Craig says, “I found the opportunity I got as a teenager to experience the outdoors was something that I always look back on with appreciation. It took me out of my comfort zone and grew my self-confidence. I am fully supportive of helping to give young people this chance to grow and learn.”

There is a quote by Wayne Gretsky – “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. For me I think it is that you miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t get the chance to take.”

So, for Craig and BFA, supporting young adults to experience the great outdoors on camps, with the opportunity to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh awards system, was an easy choice. One that Craig hopes BFA can continue to build on with Escape.

For Mark Chapman, Programme Development Manager and trustee at Escape, this community sponsorship makes all the difference to what they can achieve. Sponsorship enables them to provide experiences for more young adults every year. They have about 100 young people they work with now and hope that, with increased sponsorship, this number will grow to 400 next year.

“At Escape Adventurous Journeys we are all about getting as many young people into the outdoors as possible. With generous sponsorship from our community, we are able to give life changing experiences while giving back to our community.”

For BFA, Escape’s core values and purpose aligns perfectly with their own. Give back to the Rotorua community, and hopefully change lives for the better.

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