What a morning! I went into the Newstalk ZB radio studios today. Usually I chat to Sunday Cafe host Andrew Dickens either from an exotic destination or just on my cell phone live on Sundays and we chew the fat for a few minutes about travel.
But today was different. Regular listeners will know that I and 3 friends started Random Acts of Kindness Day in New Zealand 10 years ago and tomorrow, September 1st, is that anniversary.
New Caledonia Tourism NZ had very generously given me a trip for 2 to Noumea to give away, flying Air New Zealand and staying 3 nights at the Ramada Plaza Noumea. So for 2 weeks we had been running a Facebook campaign on Andrew Dickens’ wall where people were asked to nominate someone deserving of this amazing trip – someone who does random acts of kindness all the time and never expects anything in return.
Hundreds of people were nominated and the decision was thankfully not made by me, but Andrew and his producer who chose Ross McCook, nominated twice for the tireless work he does with troubled, suicidal youth. He has given up his job to set up the Heart for Youth Charitable Trust (feel free to click on that link and support him!)
So together in the studio, with my earphones on and my red light glowing telling me the mic was on, we dialled. It rang for a while and I whispered “come on”, forgetting the previous sentence. Finally Wendy answered and we were able to tell her that Ross had won. I had goosebumps. So did she. We both nearly cried.
You can listen to our conversation here >>>
Congratulations Ross! You and your wife will have a wonderful time in amazing New Caledonia. I was there last month and absolutely loved it 🙂
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