Happy Birthday to US! Today is our third birthday and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful Telecom workmates for supporting us and all the lovely charities and schools we work with.

If you woke up feeling a little cold and apprehensive about venturing out into the wet weather today, spare a thought for a couple of Telecom people braving the elements for a good cause tomorrow night, July 3rd.

Telecom’s Social Media Manager, Troy Rawhiti-Forbes and the Telecom Foundation People’s Champion, Jeshua MacDonald are both taking part in the Lifewise Big Sleep Out.

The Lifewise Big Sleepout is an annual event aimed at raising serious funds and channelling significant attention in the direction of solving homelessness in the city of Auckland. It is a night where influential New Zealanders forgo their creature comforts for a night of ‘rough sleeping’ as a way of making a public stand against homelessness.

Both participants have been fundraising via the Big Sleep Out website, powered by our very own Givealittle.co.nz!  100% of the money raised will go directly to Lifewise’s highly successful range of solutions-based services for the homeless. The event has raised over $89,000 so far.

Troy and Jesh will be spending the night with a cardboard sleeping mat and a sleeping bag. A quick look on the met service website says Thursday night will be showery and the temperature will be around six degrees so the group will be truly exposed to the elements!

Troy is gearing up for Thursday and is particularly excited because he reached his fundraising target over the weekend:

“I’m stoked to have raised money for Lifewise and be taking part, I don't have a magic solution to this issue, but I can play my part with my piece of cardboard, my sleeping bag, my pillow, and my desire to make a difference. Stick a hundred or so of us together and while it mightn't be magic, it'll get us that much nearer to the solution” says Troy.

Jesh is taking part because he heard about the event last year and wants to see first-hand what it’s all about. To top it off, it’s his Girlfriend’s birthday on Thursday night and she’s taking part too!

“Through my work at the Foundation, I’ve learned lots about Lifewise, they do some great work and I want to experience the Big Sleep Out and raise some money for the organisation” explains Jesh.

The Telecom Foundation announced today significant additional funding to support the rollout of the Manaiakalani digital learning approach to more low income communities.

 Today’s announcement confirms an additional $1.2 million contribution over two years to the Manaiakalani Education Trust, to support pilot digital learning programmes in several new school clusters across New Zealand.

 The Telecom Foundation is approaching its third year of partnership with the Trust, with an original investment of $1 million over four years. The new funding will more than double this investment to $2.2 million.

 Until recently, the Manaiakalani Education Trust has focused its activities on the twelve schools within the ‘innovation hub’ in Tamaki, Auckland.  The unique Manaiakalani model is now being piloting by clusters of schools in the communities of Kaikohe, Mt Roskill (Auckland), Otaki and Porirua.

 Over the past seven years, the Manaiakalani programme has transformed teaching and learning methods across participating schools.  Students have a netbook computer of their own from Year 5, paid for by their parents in modest instalments.  Student work is undertaken online, with extensive use of internet-based applications and digital technologies.

 Through its additional investment, the Telecom Foundation is funding an extensive range of activity which assists participating school clusters through the stages and activities required to successfully establish the Manaiakalani approach in their community so that student achievement can accelerate. This activity focuses on supporting the planning for a successful implementation, providing intensive professional learning development induction programmes for teachers, assisting with research and evaluation to chart student achievement and a grant by the Manaiakalani Education Trust to assist in underwriting the financial liability of device bulk purchase. It also ensures continued support of the Manaiakalani ‘innovation hub’ in Tamaki.

 Sir Bob Harvey, Chair of the Telecom Foundation, says: “We’re absolutely delighted to be the catalyst for improving education outcomes and giving these bright young people the chance to shine. In a nutshell, we’re making it possible for other communities to benefit from the many years of learning and fine tuning that have taken place within Tamaki. This announcement of additional funding is a superb lead into us becoming the Spark Foundation in August, when Telecom changes its name to Spark!”

 Research from 2013 suggests a major increase in positive student outcomes across the whole of the Tamaki cluster. This provides rich feedback to validate and further refine Manaiakalani approaches to achieving accelerated student achievement. Evidence of particular improvement was noted across the cluster in writing and mathematics, together with an improvement in Tamaki College’s 2013 NCEA Level 2 results which, at 80% achievement are well up from 26% in 2011 and 51% in 2012.

 As a showcase for the Manaiakalani programme, Pt England School is subject to much attention from educators nationally and internationally and the school has a group of ‘Ambassadors’ who explain their approach to learning to visitors. This video is of the 2012 ambassadors: http://vimeo.com/55899566.

A few weeks ago, Telecom hosted students for Workchoice Day 2014.

The event saw students from a variety of schools spending time at Telecom to learn from Telecom people what they do, why they chose their career and what life at Telecom is like.

The day is designed to get students out into actual workplaces to learn about career paths and jobs that exist within different companies and industries. Every year, almost 200 organisations around New Zealand welcome approximately 5,000 senior students into their workplaces to help them make informed decisions about their futures.

In Wellington, David Van der Zouwe once again hosted students from Newlands College, Wellington East College and Vibe Training Institute. Lisa Paraku and Rebecca Laracy also worked with David to organise the day.

Lisa says the day was an enjoyable one:

“I was asked to participate to inspire the ‘girls schools’ attending.  We ended up with both girls and co-ed schools so a really good cross section. I organised a panel of females from across our business (Fiona Smith; Fiona Macleod; Diana Lloyd; Kirsten McLay; Elaine Chambers; Helen Somerfield; Jamie Fawcett) to participate and they did a great job.  When I realised at the last minute, that our audience was also co-ed I asked Peter Naylor to attend along with Andy Crawford.  They also did our company proud.  The students were polite, inquisitive and open, so discussion flowed.”

In Auckland, the Telecom Foundation hosted students from Lynfield College, Howick College, Tamaki College and Kelston Boys. Foundation GM Lynne Le Gros put together a panel of speakers including Jesh MacDonald and Raven Garcia.

Jesh says he had a great day busting myths about what IT jobs are actually like, and introducing them to the many opportunities available at a front line technology company:

“Being in my early 20’s, I felt that the students would relate to me. I also tried to set realistic expectations while opening their minds to a world of possibilities in a dynamic company such as ours” says Jesh.

Raven says Workchoice Day was a chance to share his knowledge with the younger generation:

“It was always a dream for me to be able to inspire and share life and career experiences to the future generation; and also good to have a look back, share what you are now and your achievements”.

We've organised a winter collection campaign called 'Warm Fuzzies' from  today June 3rd  until the end of July. Throughout this time we will be collecting cans of food  and new flannelette jammies for a variety of different organisations nationwide.

Philip Burton and Matt Pettersson, from the sales team at Cranford St in Christchurch,  are about to shave their heads in support of their colleague Casey Leonard who’s two year old son is battling leukaemia.

 Phil says: “Jackson is almost 2 and a half years old, a fun loving boy who is battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and we really want to do our bit to help him, his mum and their family”.

 Jackson became sick in early 2013 and the doctors could not work out what was wrong with him. He went for blood test after blood test and uncountable Bone Marrow aspirations to finally diagnose him in July 2013, he has cancer of the blood and Bone Marrow.

 Casey says: “We quickly started treatment and this will continue until Jackson is almost five. Treatment includes chemotherapy through IV which Jackson has a permanent port for in his chest, Intrathecal which is Chemo put into his spinal fluid, numerous medications which I am proud to say my two year old has learnt to swallow pills”.

 How you can support:

 Givealittle and Shave event:

 There is a Givealittle page set up for Jackson and they would love your support.  Phil says they are fundraising for a dream holiday for Jackson once he has finished his treatment to the Gold Coast Australia so he can visit all the theme parks.

Women’s Refuge has just opened a beautiful new boutique called Yellow Belle and people can show their support by bringing in pre-loved clothing to work to be donated.

The Telecom Foundation is collecting any special or treasured clothing items that you no longer want or need to be sold at Yellow Belle. There a giant shopping bag in the Foundation’s Yellow Level Two office where people can bring their clothing to for the next few weeks.  

Yellow Belle sells clothing that is donated to them, all proceeds from the boutique go towards helping Women’s Refuge reach out to 20,000 women and children each year and answer a crisis call every nine minutes.

Stephanie Garvey of Women’s Refuge says: “If you have a treasured item that you have felt really special and confident in, chances are that someone else will love it and want to buy it from Yellow Belle boutique”. This is a great opportunity to go through your wardrobe for items of clothing, accessories, bags, shoes and scarves that you might like to donate. Although quality garments and accessories are preferred, Yellow Belle has a distribution centre in Silverdale where more casual items are either sold to the public or donated directly to women leaving violent relationships.

Both Men and women can donate clothing as menswear can be sold at the Women’s Refuge distribution centre in Silverdale. Please note that clothes do not have to be dry-cleaned.

Women’s Refuge and Yellow Belle

For more information about Yellow Belle, follow the boutique on Facebook. The store is located at 112 Hurstmere Rd in Takapuna and relies on regular volunteer staff.

Women’s Refuge is a women’s organisation for women and their children, here to help prevent and stop family violence in New Zealand. Women’s Refuge takes a strong advocacy role by working to positively change policy and attitudes about domestic violence.

Here's a few fun opportunities this May that involve team bonding, shared lunches and helping some of your favourite charitable organisations.

Oxfam Morning Tea

Getting together with friends and colleagues over a cuppa is one of life’s little pleasures during the working day. Knowing that by doing this you’re helping make a difference to some of the poorest people in the world is even better!

This Fairtrade Fortnight (May 3 – 18, 2014) Oxfam is encouraging people to take part in the Oxfam Morning Tea.

How can you help?

It’s easy; sign up now to host a Morning Tea in support of Oxfam - You’ll instantly create your own Morning Tea page where you can invite friends and colleagues, and to help kick start your event, Oxfam will send you materials to promote it along with ideas to make your fundraising easy, fun and rewarding.

 They’ll also send you some Fairtrade certified goods to help fuel your Morning Tea planning. And, as an added incentive, the host who raises the most money by June 20, 2014 will win a hamper of Fairtrade certified goodies courtesy of Scarborough Fair!

If you have any questions or would like to chat about Oxfam’s Morning Tea before deciding to host one, please do not hesitate to contact the Oxfam Morning Tea team on 0800 600 700 or [email protected]

  Pink Ribbon Breakfast

 This May is your opportunity to host a Pink Ribbon Breakfast to benefit the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation.

 This event is a favourite here at Telecom and this year there is even more of a connection!  The Telecom Foundation and Givealittle are powering up the website for the event, ensuring 100% of the money donation goes to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

 You can host a Pink Ribbon breakfast at work with your team, to register follow this link.

 Once your team is signed up, NZBCF will send you a kit with everything you need to host your breakfast including:

a host instruction sheet

NZBCF merchandise

products from our sponsors/supporters

a pre-paid Post Haste courier bag and the forms you need to return the money you’ve raised as well as any left -over NZBCF merchandise that you might have once you’ve held your breakfast.

Angela Henry of Telecom Rentals in Wellington is organising a Pink Ribbon Breakfast and is aiming to raise $2,000, she says:

Telecom people are doing some great things, not only inside our business but also in the community too! Melonie Cole of Telecom Nelson has spent much of the last year organising and putting together a fundraising cookbook for her local school.

The Mapua Village Cookbook is a collection of recipes from people within the community. The cookbook was put together by Melonie and Nelson local Talai Hayward from the Mapua School parent and teacher association (PTA) to fundraise for a new multi-purpose indoor space for the school's growing roll. Pulse put a few questions to Melonie about the cookbook project.

  Why did you decide to create the Mapua Village Cookbook?

Melonie Cole:  The growing roll at Mapua has meant that there is no single place within the school or Mapua village where the students can meet or do sports or cultural activities under cover. The community has begun fund-raising for a large indoor space / multi-purpose facility which we envisage would be used by the school and wider community.

We are very aware that Mapua, in the Tasman region, is fast-coming a popular place to live and visit. The Taste Tasman Cycle Trail comes right through Mapua and we have a steady stream of visitors at all times of the year. We really wanted to capture the essence of our community in this book, so it features over 100 recipes donated from friends and families of the school as well as from local cafes, restaurants, bars and shops.

We didn’t have a theme as such for the book when we started, but it quickly evolved into something very “Nelson” and we feel it really showcases our beautiful region with its culinary and scenic delights.

  What’s your connection with Mapua School?

I have a son at school, Harvey, he’s eight and in year four. The kids have really got into the whole cookbook thing – some classes are looking at the business and creative aspects as part of their classwork and others are proudly doing their bit to sell it.  I’m sure others will appreciate that being a working mum has its fair share of challenges. I wanted to contribute my time and skills to a fundraising initiative that I could fit in around working hours, and that would get me more connected to the school and the wider community. 

  Why did you choose to develop a cookbook to fundraise?

There is nothing like it in the region, we figured it would be a long and challenging project but the financial rewards overall would far out-weigh holding hundreds of sausage sizzles, movie nights, calendars, and selling of chocolate bars (to people who don’t really want it!) to raise funds for the school. Doing something a bit different to what PTA’s are usually known for was a bit of a risk but we had great support from the school and local community from start to finish.

    Do you have a recipe in the book? If yes, why did you choose it?

I’ve contributed a Thai Green Curry which is a family favourite – quick and easy, also a Baked Lemon Cheesecake which is a special occasion hit! Many recipes feature seasonal produce from the beautiful Tasman region, including tomatoes, apples, and seafood.

  What’s your favourite recipe from the book and why?

Of course I have to say they are all good, but the salad ones are pretty special.

  How long did the book take to create and what was the most challenging part about it?

It was just over a year in the making. We completely underestimated how much time such a big project would take but we wanted to end up with something people would pick up and go ‘wow – that’s amazing’ so it was good not to rush it. We thought it would be challenging to find people to help with the many aspects of putting a cookbook together. But we found that people gave generously of their time and skills (including our designer, food photographer and local businesses) when we told them all profits were going straight to the school.

  What was your favourite part about working on the project?

It was great to be able to utilise business experience and skills to benefit the school. Seeing something like this right through from start to finish meant I needed to develop things like a business case and marketing plan. Past experience as a project manager and in the publishing industry certainly helped! Aside from all the business stuff, it was a very creative project to be involved in. We made every recipe in the book and one of my favourite parts was styling the food for the photos – we did 40 recipes a day so it was pretty full on. Now we are at the point where copies are flying out the door and the feedback has been incredible. We are basking in the glow of success and relief that such a big gamble has paid off!

  How can people get their hands on the cookbook?

Easter is nearly here and aside from all the chocolate hitting the shelves nationwide, The Big Egg Hunt for Starship is on.

This is the first event of its kind Down Under which showcases giant eggs designed by top New Zealand artists all in support of Starship.

Hunting for the eggs is a fun activity that you could do with your family this upcoming Easter weekend. New Zealand’s leading artists and designers have turned giant eggs into unique masterpieces. 100 eggs are hidden throughout Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in historic, landmark and public spaces.

The Big Egg Hunt aims to raise funds for the Starship Foundation, a charity which supports the national children’s hospital to provide world-leading care for almost 120,000 patient visits each year. The Eggs will be auctioned off after Easter.

How to Hunt?

There are 100 eggs hiding in various historic, landmark and public spaces around Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch until April 22.

Mark the eggs you find on the special map and use #BigEggHuntNZ to share your photos on social media.

Melba takes part

Melba Café in Telecom Place are sponsoring one of the eggs!

The café’s egg is the Brad Novak Reservoir Birds for Starship, Brad is an internationally recognised New Zealand urban pop artist, based in Auckland.  Novak’s art derives inspiration from his life and medical studies as a public health doctor with a heavy influence from New Zealand iconography and vintage pop artists such as Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Our Telecom Ambassador Jeni is volunteering at the Torbay Plunket Sale at the beginning of May and she would like to recruit more volunteers both inside and outside of Telecom!

 Jeni says:

"We need volunteers from midday Friday the 9th May until late (for setup) and all day Saturday 10th May (for the sale and cleaning up afterwards). 

We need to sort clothes, hang clothes, security guards, sort toys, tidy up during and after the sale, help customers and cook the BBQ".

Please email Tara at [email protected] if you would like to volunteer

Telecom people, if you would like to talk to a Telecom Foundation Ambassador (who has previously volunteered for this) to find out more about the sale, contact [email protected].

Dinner on Friday and lunch on Saturday is provided. Hot and cold drinks throughout the time will be available.

50% of the Plunket profits go directly to the Meals for Families program which provides free, healthy, frozen meals and baking to families of newborns in Torbay and to families dealing with sickness, post natal depression, no family support or just needing help.

See the following Facebook page for further information:

It’s well reported that there is a growing need for more ICT trained people in New Zealand’s workforce and people already in the profession play a major part in attracting new talent.

 Telecom’s Craig Bayley spent his volunteer day at various high schools in Auckland to talk about careers in IT in support of IITP’s school outreach program, ICT-Connect.

ICT-Connect is a long-term practical programme that will significantly contribute to resolving New Zealand's ICT skill shortage, at the same time introducing young people to a great career option in ICT.

It does this through linking professional with students in schools, creating a channel for them to inspire and widen perspectives about industry opportunities for the next generation of leaders.

ICT- Connect are now inviting professionals in the 2013 rollout areas to express an interest in getting involved.

Craig says: “I had a great time presenting at Westlake Boys and Girls High Schools over the last couple of weeks. I think ICT-Connect is a great program and we really need more people to sign up”. Craig believes it’s very important that the younger generation are aware that they can have a career in the ICT industry:

“Technology is so ubiquitous now it’s almost invisible - and it’s so easy for the next generation to become simply blind consumers, leaving us with no new blood to take over and provide input to the next iterations of capability. For the future of the industry which is our passion, and for the good of the next generation, we cannot let that happen”. “There is a yawning gulf between the demand and supply of skilled IT staff in New Zealand, as anyone who has tried to recruit talent here will know. Growing the knowledge economy is at least as important to New Zealand's future as our primary industry sectors are. It needs more focus”. “As IT professionals the ICT-Connect program gives us an awesome opportunity to give something back to the industry. It’s both enjoyable and humbling, and I personally found myself invigorated by the simple act of re-affirming to an audience who had no preconceptions why I still work in IT after 16 years”.

Thanks for sharing Craig, we love hearing about the ways our people are teaching others.

Our lovely Dee, from Telecom's Mayoral Drive office, brings us in baby hats that she knits for Middlemore and Starship hospitals. Here are are a few of the hats that she delivered to us yesterday, Middlemore will be receiving these soon!

 The Telecom Foundation is today celebrating a momentous milestone in its payroll giving and matching programme, reaching $2 million dollars donated to schools, charities and community groups, making the programme one of the most significant payroll giving initiatives in New Zealand.

 Payroll giving was introduced in New Zealand in 2010 and enables employees to make donations to organisations such as schools and charities through their employer’s payroll system and receive an immediate tax credit of 33% of their donation.

 Since July 2011, the Telecom Foundation has been operating a universal payroll giving programme, offering employees the opportunity to donate a portion of their pay to any of the 26,000 IRD Donee status charities and state/state integrated schools in New Zealand. Telecom then matches the donations dollar for dollar (up to $1,000 for schools and $1,000 for charities). Since the programme launched, 35% of the Telecom workforce have participated in payroll giving.

 The programme has been hugely successful and Sir Bob Harvey, Chair of the Telecom Foundation, says he is extremely proud of the way Telecom people have embraced the programme:

 “I’ve always known our payroll giving programme was popular with Telecom people, I am absolutely over the moon to have reached the $2 million dollar milestone”.

 “We strongly believe that the success of our payroll giving programme comes down to it being universal, we don’t want to tell our people who or what they should give to,  it’s nice that they can choose from such a broad range of charities and schools to donate to” says Sir Bob. “Our big ambition is to be able to share what we’ve learnt about running a successful programme as well as the database we’ve built up with other like-minded New Zealand businesses.”

 Telecom parents can pay their school donations through the programme and employees can support their favourite charities with one off or ongoing donations. Over the last few years, donations have been made to regional SPCA’s, children’s charities such as Child Cancer Foundation, Cholmondeley and KidsCan along with hundreds of school donations paid. These are just a few examples of how Telecom people have made the most of this great programme.

 Telecom’s Anna Loughnan regularly donates through payroll giving and is a supporter of the programme:

 “I signed up for payroll giving as soon as it was offered by Telecom.  It seemed a convenient way of paying the hefty school ‘donation’ to my daughter’s school, as well as donating to my favourite charity, Oxfam.  The added sweetener was the matching of donations up to $1000 by Telecom!” Says Anna.

 Hon Todd McClay MP, Revenue Minister, encourages businesses across New Zealand to think about payroll giving:

 “I encourage all businesses to consider providing payroll giving to their employees as the more we can do to support the charitable and community sectors the more they can do to help those in need.”

On Friday we had our Back to School Shared Lunch competition. Teams were encouraged to sign up and create a shared lunch to celebrate our Back to School payroll giving programme. The teams took photos of their lunches and the winners have been decided!

The calibre of entries were extremely high, we are so happy with the effort put in by every team.

The winning entries:

Most creative shared lunch: Credit Approvals Class of 2014 (Natasha Wilkinson)

TF Comments: We were impressed with the thought that had gone into this entry. The team had uniforms, ice cream sundaes and put up lots of decorations.

Best looking food: Skinny (Sepi Sadeghi)

TF Comments: Skinny's food looked good enough to be served at a cafe! Well done!

Most authentic ‘school’ lunch: Wholesale Gen-I and Business Collections (Tracey Mason)

TF Comments: This team had a sandwich bar shared lunch, it looked very similar to the sammies we remember getting for lunch! This team also shared each others old school photos by the looks of it.

Best team effort: Boulcott St Year 11 Shared Lunch (Monica Chik)

TF Comments: Great variety of food, it look likes lots of effort had been put in!

Supreme Award: Gen-i Bay Of Plenty (Andrew Berntsen)

TF Comments: Great uniforms, setting, food and photos. This was the whole package and we loved how this team turned the competition into a team bonding lunch. The photos made us wish we were there too!

Congrats to all the winners, they will receive Givealittle vouchers to donate to their favourite causes on the website. A big thanks to all the teams who particpated, we hope it was as much fun for you as it was for us organising it!

For more photos, take a look at our Facebook page.