By C Packwood | Posted: Sunday June 15, 2025
Coming off a successful 2024 where new foundations were laid after a change in teacher-in-charge, the World Vision group at Timaru Boys’ High School has certainly evolved into a humanitarian force to be reckoned with within the school.
Sadly, while we did lose members from last year due to other commitments, we have managed to pick up some really strong new additions to our group in the form of Faliqh Faris, Myles Wheeler, Liam Bridson, Riley Horstmann, Hugh Eccleston, Jandre Visage, and Archie Thomson each of whom have managed to strengthen the group even further and complement the remaining members from the 2024 group. It is very exciting to see what they will achieve in 2026 and how their plans and actions will make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. A number of meetings were held at the beginning of the year, away from the rest of the school, to come up with some rough ideas as to what could be done to improve the living conditions in the Solomon Islands, which was our main focus for 2025.
Not delaying getting on with the task at hand, the first big activity for us was the World Vision Conference up in Christchurch on the 9th May. Courtesy of Mr. Thorp’s driving, six boys (Myles Wheeler and Liam Bridson (year 11), Faliqh Faris and Riley Horstmann (year 12) and Archie Thomson and Jandre Visage (year 13)) went up with Mr. Packwood to Christchurch to learn about leadership approaches and how to fundraise for the challenge. The six boys worked really well together to come up with some really impressive, even out of the ordinary, ideas such as giving one year group a day off if they fundraised the most, and even managed to impress a large number of Christchurch schools with their pitch to sell the challenge. The boys certainly came away buzzing with many ideas that provided much discussion with Mr. Thorp and Mr. Packwood on the two and a half hour drive back to Timaru.
Three days after this incredibly successful conference was our quiz night down at Richard Pearse Tavern on the 12th May. We certainly topped our efforts last year by raising a massive $795.00 compared to the $202.00 raised in 2024. Already, many families in the Solomon Islands were becoming able to protect and develop their food sources further for a better life as well as have greater access to resources to produce more food for their communities. Thanks to all the boys and staff who came along to support this event.
Riding on these successes, we had a non-uniform day on the 6th June. The student cohort managed to raise $683.90 from this and by now had already managed to top their fundraising goal of $4000 considerably by going up to a whopping $5452.90 prior to the challenge. The boys were really proud of their efforts especially knowing that their achievements will help out thousands of lives.
Despite all these successes, the boys wanted to push it even further. Our last fundraising activity before the challenge was a BBQ fundraiser four hours prior to the challenge. With the added pitch of the event being the boys’ last meal before the challenge, and with our fundraising getting bigger, a positive turn out was had by staff and students.
After all these efforts and hard work, it all came to the final event of the season - the 40 hour challenge. Commencing at 6pm on Friday 13th and finishing at 10am on the 15th June, 31 boys from the senior school went for 40 hours in the gym with no food but with full access to everything in the gym, more than enough to keep them occupied during this time. Well done to all the boys who participated in the challenge and raised awareness of food shortages in the Solomon Islands. A big thank you to all the staff who also gave up their time to help support the boys with this massive endeavour and the Senior Leadership Team for their kind and generous support.
The overall amount that the boys raised this year was $7033.00. Well done boys for your determination and drive with your efforts this year. Your standards have really set a bar that really will be a mission impossible to beat in 2026. This will really go a long way in making a difference in the lives of thousands of families in the Solomon Islands.
Our top fundraisers this year were Archie Thomson raising $1003, Daniel Heffernan raising $721, Alexander Chapman raising $542, Myles Wheeler raising $415, and Liam Bridson raising $275. All members of the TBHS community should pass on a big congratulations to them, knowing that their efforts will help out thousands of people.
