Whangarei-man Andrew Sworn and his Pink Truck’n team mates are fettling their pink fire truck to enter the 25th anniversary Variety Trillian Bash fund-raiser in aid of disadvantaged Kiwi kids.
They are also planning a water-borne event to help fill charity coffers and the Variety Splash will launch almost the moment they return to Whangarei.
The week-long Variety Bash will start off in New Plymouth on March 7, zig-zagging the North Island before ending in Auckland, delivering grants to low-decile and rural schools and kids along the way.
“We take a different route every year to ensure as many country kids as possible get the benefit – of the entertainment the convoy brings with it, as much as the grants we deliver,” says Sworn.
Sworn and his team mates don’t have a sponsor for their 1981 International Acco fire engine with a 5.6-litre V8 engine, and so the large donation they must pledge to take part in the event is raised through sausage sizzles and galas, fire engine rides and Warehouse BBQs.
“It’s all worth it to see the smiles on kids’ faces,” he says.
Why a pink truck? Sworn was running a Chev Impala sponsored by Big Ben Pies, and his daughter Mel wanted to get involved. She found an ex fire-service fire truck and persuaded him to buy it, the plan being to run an all-girl team from 2009 under the H2O Gurlz banner.
That didn’t happen, Mel moved on, and the Chevy needed restoration, so Sworn is now running the renamed Pink Truck’n team.
He says kept the colour to help draw attention to the cause and also because girls like fire engines too – and for every one who loves a red truck, there are plenty who get a buzz from seeing Pink Truck’n in the thick of it.
The truck’s been fitted with sirens, lights and a sound system, while the pumping gear was replaced with a portable pump as water fights have become something of a Bash feature, with local fire crews also getting among the watery mayhem – anyone sitting on the six exterior seats on the truck is guaranteed to get wet.
Sworn and his friends organise a water-borne fundraiser each year, with the next Variety Splash taking place around the Whangarei Harbour on March 27-29.
