LOCKDOWN UPDATE FROM TIM WILLS, CEO

Tēnā koe,

I hope and pray that all is well, whether you are in a 4 or 2 alert level. I am currently sitting in my Auckland home office doing my bit, and as such I thought I’d give you another quick update on how our organisation is faring.

The good news is that although under level 2 restrictions the Christchurch team is back operating!

This is fantastic for our rangatahi (youth) and for our Christchurch staff who can get back outdoors. There is a lot of juggling with rescheduling cancellations and postponements, and as such term 4 will be very busy.

Auckland continues to be unable to operate and Jeff (Auckland’s Operations Manager) certainly has his hands full trying to reschedule programmes with the additional challenge of not knowing when we can actually get back to work!

However, we are trying to keep our staff busy from home, usually with admin tasks. We even have Laura (one of our amazing instructors) sewing face masks as a fund raiser for her goal of creating an all-girls outdoor adventure journey!!

If you email laura@adventurespecialties.co.nz, you can order one which will support this awesome initiative.

Overall, the Auckland team is getting frustrated at not being able to get back to work but are mostly coping ok.

It’s really challenging for active people to be restricted to their homes in a level 3 or 4 lockdown.

Financially, we are thankful for the wage subsidy and resurgence support from the government and the on-going and continued support in the way of donations, gifts, and grants.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t cover all our expenses and we cannot sustain this for too much longer without the additional income from delivering our outdoor adventure programmes.

The good news is it is looking like we will be very busy in the last school term (as long as Auckland is out of lock down) as many are wanting their cancelled programmes to return in this period. This will obviously help our finances significantly.

We do want to get back out and serve our communities and we are worried about the ongoing impact of mental health on our rangatahi (youth). The experience of a global pandemic and on-going lockdowns can lead to increased feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation, and more.

We encourage everyone to spend regular time outdoors keeping active. Please keep in touch with your friends and family, whoever is in your support system.

Reach out for help if you are struggling.

On that note, if you are a person who believes in prayer (as we do), I ask that you do consider us in your prayers, and also the struggling youth out there!

Ngā mihi nui,

Tim Wills