The Finn Lowery Foundation is delighted to announce our first major event this year after what has been a disjointed start to the events calendar. 

On 29 July 2020 please join us at the Finishline at AUT MIllenium as we welcome our very special guest speaker Sir John Kirwan.  The former All Black and now renowned advocate for mental health awareness, Sir John will provide a presentation on his own journey to wellness. 

This will be a first in a series of events, to help increase the awareness, understanding and knowledge of mental health and wellbeing within the North Harbour Water Polo Club and will aim in helping all members and family members to reflect and understand their own mental health and wellbeing. 

All the information around attending this event can be found here.

The Finn Lowery Foundation is delighted to announce that Korban Kirk is the winner of the inaugural Finn Lowery award and scholarship, valued at $2,500. The quality of all the applications received made the decision of the trustees all the more difficult, but in the end, Korban was a clear and deserving recipient.

Korban has played water polo since he was 11 years old. His achievements in the sport include:

• 2020 North Harbour senior men’s team, under 20 and under 18 team members.
• 2019 NZ School Boys team – MVP
• 2019 North Harbour under 18 men’s National Gold medallist
• 2018 North Harbour under 16 men’s National Gold medallist and MVP
• 2017 /2018 Westlake Boys High School Premier team MVP
• 2018 National secondary schools’ championships– silver medallist and member of the tournament team

 
Since 2016 Korban has been a C grade referee and since 2019, he has been coaching the young elite North Harbour teams and players.

The trustees were impressed with Korban’s dedication to his chosen sport and standards of excellence achieved by him in both his performance in the pool and coaching and refereeing. The trustees were particularly impressed by Korban’s approach to challenges outside the pool, and to his commitment to furthering himself as a person.  His qualities of courage and commitment were shared by Finn, for whom the award is named.

The Trust will make the scholarship monies available to Korban this week, and Korban will be formally presented with the award at the September event for the Foundation, the details of which will be released shortly.
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The trustees warmly congratulate Korban and look forward to hearing from him as to how the award and scholarship will be utilised to support his aspirations.

A number of nominations have been received for the Finn Lowery Award. Applications close on 30th April and the winner will be announced by the Trustees in May 2020 

Dear Supporters, 

With the new year now well underway, the Trustees of the Finn Lowery Foundation would like to provide you with an update on the Foundation. In late January the Foundation was notified that it had been successful in achieving charitable status. This is extremely good news as all donations will from now on be tax deductible. The Foundation’s website design is now well underway and should be live by the end of this month. The Trustees have also been researching and reviewing appropriate wellness programme providers and crisis line support channels. Work will continue in these areas to ensure the most sustainable and effective options can be provided. 
  
The Foundation acknowledges the tragic loss of Rowan Brown, a well respected and much loved North Harbour player. The Trust has offered support to the family and Club members and will continue to do so if requested. 

The Trustees are excited to announce that applications for the annual Finn Lowery Award are now open, the online form can be found here. It will be awarded to the player, manager, or coach who best demonstrates Finn’s qualities of courage and excellence and carries a monetary scholarship prize of $2,500. So complete your nomination now, applications close on 30th April 2020. The Award will be presented in May so stay tuned for updates. 

Finally it was great to see Finn’s name mentioned last night at the Halberg Awards. 

Lynda Kearns, 
Chair