WORD Up! Wānaka Newsletter Feed

The latest Wānaka WORD Up Newsletter

Kia Ora koutou!

I know I'm supposed to love all this snow, but deep down I'm quite excited that we're inching closer to summer. I can feel it in my bones!!! Things like the brand new Pedal and Pour in Cromwell in September are helping too. Now, here at HQ, we are gearing up for our 3rd (?!) season in Wanaka. We're on the hunt for a new Programme Manager (aka the next Pete!) and we'll also be hiring a few more mountain bike instructors to join our team! 

October holiday camp bookings will open 20th August (wahoo!). But in the meantime, stay warm and eat all the snacks....

See you on the trails!

Ash and the WORD Whanau
 
Wanaka Programme Manager- applications NOW open!

The search is on for the next Wānaka Programme Manager! This amazing human is the face of WORD here in the community. They will be community-focused, operationally-oriented, stoked about mountain biking and moved to make it more accessible to young people. The Programme Manager will oversee the day to day operations of our fabulous charity, essentially making WORD work! They will be maintaining and creating fabulous partnerships and initiatives to help over 250 kids a year enjoy biking just as much as we do. This role is 20 hours/week starting in September. 

Responsibilities include:

-Programme Development and Management  (30%)
-Relationship Management (25%)
-Whānau Support (20%)
-Marketing and Communication (20%)
-MTB Instruction (5%)

Check out the Wānaka Programme Manager Role Description for more info

Applications close 18 August, 9pm.
Instructors Recruitement 
Applications are NOW OPEN

As we are gearing ourselves up for a busy Summer season, we're excited to start recruiting for new instructors for Wellington and Wānaka! The WORD Instructors are simply the BEST. They're the folks who instruct our after school and holiday camps programmes. As an instructor, you will be paid for teaching young people to become great riders and great people. MTB skills, trail building, bike maintenance, teamwork, and the occasional face painting are all part of the job. If this all sounds like a bit of you and you’re looking for something meaningful to fill 1 or 2 afternoons during the Summer whilst having a heap of fun, have a look at the Job Description or find out more HERE!

Applications close on 19 August.
We have a winner!

We had an absolute blast at B.Social for the Yeti 160e bike raffle.... For those of you that missed it on our socials, the winner of the amazing Yeti 160e is Geoff of Wanaka! 

'I'm just gobsmacked! I've never even won a meat raffle' ~ Geoff when he heard the news.

A massive thanks to everyone who purchased a ticket! With your generous support, we raised almost $30,000 for WORD! This is by far our biggest fundraiser of the year and will go a long way to helping us keeping costs low and supporting more young people to ride bikes with us at WORD. 

We are forever grateful to Yeti NZ, Dropping Inn, B.Social, and JRA for making this incredible raffle happen!
Founder's Folly
It's still summer in the northern hemisphere...Ash's next stop on the USA Study Tour of youth mountain bike organisations... Minneapolis, Minnesota?!

Read more about the adventures on our new blog: Founder's Folly.
Mat's next Adventure
Big news on the Leadership Team... after a year as the National Operations Manager/Mr. Fix It, Mat is heading onto a new role! Over the past year Mat jumped into every situation we had and said 'yep, I got this'. From t-shirt sorting (those tie-dyes are so rad!), organising the Thumb-raiser ($6k raised?!), to then filling in as the Wellington Programme Manager (until we found our unicorn Claudia!).

Mat new role is with Kiwi Community Assistance, a non profit who rescue & redistribute around 32 tons of food monthly, along with approximately 500 banana boxes of non-food items. These essentials are then provided to frontline agencies directly serving those in need. 

I am so grateful to Mat for all of his ideas, big mahi, and support. While we knew we couldn't keep Mat forever, I'm so grateful we had this time together. We'll still see Mat around as an Instructor at WORD, wahoo!
WORD Winter merch drop!
Order by 16 August

Weather you need to keep warm for what’s left of winter riding, keep warm by the campfire this summer, or simply add some “bling” to you bike, we can sort your out!

Hoodies and Sweatshirts:
Little Kids sizes - 2 to 6 - $45
Kids sizes 8 to 12 - $60
Staple sizes Small to XXL - $70

WORD Stem caps-$15

Order here before 16 August for your fresh merch to be ready mid September!
Order Merch
WORD Up - April 2024

Kia ora koutou!

It's Ash here, WORD Founder/CEO, and we're kicking this newsletter off with some big news for your Wednesday!

After 3 years at WORD, Pete is heading onto his next adventure at The Alpine Group! He'll be the new Operations, Safety and Performance Manager looking after the heli bike, heli-ski, and tourism operations, as well as the health and safety of the aviation side of the business. 

A bit of a story... I first met Pete in Wellington when he applied to be an Instructor at WORD. It was obvious from that first coffee chat (where we both had hot chocolates) that he had something more to offer our little organisation. He moved to Wanaka not knowing anyone and launched the world of WORD in the community and growing it to over 75 kids each term with a kick-ass group of instructors.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working, riding, adventure planning, laughing and crying with Pete. He has been the person that just gets it. He is WORD in every way possible. I am forever grateful to him for saying yes to move to Wanaka, saying maybe to most of my ideas, and saying I've got this to just about everything else. 

When he told me about this new role, I said that I would fire him if he didn't take it...This is absolutely the best next step for such a wonderful human with so much to offer the world. 

Pete will finish up with WORD at the end of May when he heads off overseas on a bike-packing trip, before starting his new role. We're stoked he'll still be based in Wānaka so you'll be sure to see him on the trails, and the supermarket as per usual.

Pete will write his last newsletter next month before he moves on so you'll hear get to read what he has to say about his time at WORD and his next steps.

As for WORD in Wanaka, since we hibernate in winter, we'll be looking to recruit a new Programme Manager in August.

Rock on Pete! You're the best.

Read on for:
1: April school holiday bookings
2: WORD's second WONDERS programme in Wānaka!
3: March WORD Donations insight

Ngā mihi,

Ash, Pete and the WORD Instructors

April school holiday bookings are still open!

We've got some fun programmes lined up for our 7 - 12 yr old age groups this April, as well as our usual programme with the QLDC holiday camps on the 17th of April at Bike Glendhu. This can be booked via their channels!

WORD Programmes:

7-9 yr olds

15th-16th April - Know your Local - 2 half days - Girls - 7 spots available

18th-19th April - Know your Local - 2 half days - Boys - SOLD OUT

10-12 yr olds

22nd - 23rd April - 'Grow your Local' - 2 half days - 2 girls spots available, boys spots SOLD OUT 

WORD's Second WONDERS Programme wrap up!
Our WONDERS programme with this bunch of boys was absolutely epic!

They had their four preparation sessions before they took to the Millenium track, bike packing all the way to the Glendhu Bay campground from Wānaka, with a side up to Jacks Spot at Bike Glendhu! 

This group of 6 boys was age 11 - 15 and were from the local homeschool community in Central Lakes. Bikepacking was new to all of them, and they learned heaps and rose to the occasion of being self-sufficient on their bikes overnight.  

We're so grateful to Sport Otago for funding this WONDERS programme and making this opportunity totally free!

We have now run a WONDERS programme both for the girls and the boys, and we're looking forward to bringing this programme to others around Aotearoa. Watch this space!!