With the first games of the Rugby World Cup kicking off on Friday 9 September, New Zealand Rotarians will be welcoming their first international guests in a unique home hosting programme for rugby loving Rotarians.
The project is the brain child of a couple of hardworking Rotarians from 9940, Allan Brown from RC Hutt City and Howard Tong RC Port Nicholson. (See www.rotarynzrugbyhosting.org)
“We were looking for ways to bring Rotarians together, to support the Rugby World Cup campaign in New Zealand and, of course, to make a few dollars for charity – in this case the Polio Plus campaign, says Howard.
Under the home hosting scheme, visitors pay $150 a night and $100 of that goes to the Polio Plus campaign with the host keeping the rest to cover their costs.
Rotarians in nine centres around New Zealand where games are being played will host international Rotarians for a total of 131 visitor nights. 30% of the visitors are coming from Australia, 20% from England, and 17% from South Africa. A third of the total visitor nights are made up of Rotarians visiting other Rotarians within New Zealand, plus there’s a few from various other countries.
