 On 6 June the Finn Lowery Foundation was honoured to host New Zealand sporting icon, pole vaulter Eliza McCartney to share her story on rising to the top of her sport and being resilient in the face of adversity. The evening was attended by about 100 North Harbour Waterpolo community members including a large contingent of intermediate players. Eliza shared the highs of winning Olympic bronze and Commonwealth silver as well as the frustrating lows of her injury break which included 461 days without being able to vault. It was inspiring to hear how Eliza has faced adversity by changing her mindset and going back to basics. In a sport where failing a jump is common, Eliza stressed the amazing learning opportunity that failure provides and highlighted that results should not define a someone, rather balance and life after sport is important. Eliza was also on hand to help present the Finn Lowery Foundation award to two very deserving recipients, Sammie Bentley and Darcy Spark, who each received $2,500 to assist with their upcoming waterpolo endeavours. The trustees were extremely impressed with the high calibre of this year’s applicants and Darcy and Sammie’s service and dedication to waterpolo and the club, as well as the courage they’ve shown in recent times set them apart. See the Finn Lowery Award page for Darcy and Sammie's profile. The Finn Lowery Foundation and North Harbour Waterpolo Club wish Eliza all the best as she heads to Europe on her quest to qualify for another Olympics. 
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 On Saturday the Finn Lowery Foundation hosted the ‘Have a Go at Polo’ afternoon at AUT Millennium in conjunction with North Harbour Water Polo Club. What an amazing turnout of people aged as young as 3 years old! Following on from this we had the privilege of catching up over a drink and hearing from William Pike - Inspirational Speaker about stepping out of your comfort zone. William was also on hand to help in presenting the 2022 winner of the Finn Lowery award. Congratulations to James Catlin for embodying the values that Finn exemplified - Courage and Excellence.   2022 applications are now open. Click HERE to complete your application.
Applications for the award will close Thursday 30th June. The application that is selected to receive the award will be announced at a FLF event in July or August. To find out any more information about the award, you can find this on the Award page on our website - here Lisa Carrington and Gordon Walker Q+A Event Video is now available for those who missed out1/7/2021  The Finn Lowery Foundation was excited to host a Q+A event with Halberg Sportswoman of the decade and Olympic champion, Lisa Carrington, as well as her Halberg Champion coach, Gordon Walker
Lisa has been at the absolute peak of the world in her chosen sporting endeavours for many years. This lifetime of experience in high performance situations has allowed Lisa to excel in the many facets of sport and concurrently understand how to deal with some of the difficult areas of sport outside of direct competition. Lisa was kind enough to be spend an evening talking with the Finn Lowery Foundation’s community on balance (especially as a young athlete), overcoming adversity, challenges and dealing with self-doubt. This was an amazing opportunity for water polo players, parents and family of all ages to come and have an intimate opportunity to take experiences and examples from a historic sporting champion and coach. In order to make sure nobody missed out on this opportunity, a full video of the Q+A was made available and can be found in the media section of our website - https://www.thefinnloweryfoundation.co.nz/media.html  The Finn Lowery Foundation is delighted to announce that Ella Roberts and Luke Blackburn have won the 2021 Finn Lowery Award. Given last year was not your typical year, the Finn Lowery Foundation presented not one but two Finn Lowery awards. Given both were award recipient's applications were well regarded by the FLF trustees, both Ella and Luke have received a $2,500 scholarship.
Ella loves the sport of water polo, which she has played since aged 10 . She has always worked hard to maintain a solid and stable life in and out of the water. Throughout Ella’s time at North Harbour she has always been a committed, positive, member of her team and the club. Water Polo has been a constant in Ella’s life, something she has been able to rely on, a sport where she can spend time with her group of amazing friends. Ella has been a valued member of all our age group teams during the past years and is a current member of the U18B team this season. She continues to give back to the sport regularly by coaching a number of NH U12 teams over the past years. Ella loves sharing her passion for the sport with the next wave of young players just starting out in this sport. Support from her family has remained constant and Ella is keen to acknowledge her mother, who also volunteers in many roles within NH. Luke has been playing water polo since the age of 7. He has played for NH since the u12 eg group and is a committed club member in every respect. In u14 his goal was to make the U14A boys team but he fell short of his goal, and the following year he was named in a NH u16 D team. For Luke quitting was never an option on the road to success. He was keen to find a way forward. With a positive mindset and a willingness to persevere, there was little beyond his reach. The attitude of being ready to work even in the face of challenges and despite odds is what has made all the difference in Luke’s life. Luke took this as an opportunity to work at the sport he loved and continued to train hard and work on developing his game. Eventually he made the u16A team and was rewarded with a National Title. Luke says WP has offered him an opportunity to make great connections with team mates and coaches, and has taught him the value of hard work and dedication. Much of what Luke has achieved over the years both in and out of the pool, he has had the solid support of his grandparents behind him throughout.  The Finn Lowery Award is an annual scholarship of $2500 which is awarded to an applicant who emulates the attributes that Finn showed throughout his lifetime. These are centered around courage and excellence.
This is the second year for the award and the FLF trustees are excited to see this years applications. You are able to nominate yourself but also nominate someone within the water polo community who has shown courage and/or excellence throughout the last year. There is no age range for applications and all players within the community are welcome to apply. Applications for the 2021 Award are now open. These will close on 1st May 2021. All applications can be made here.  Finn Lowery Foundation Chair, Lynda Kearns, caught up with Korban Kirk this week, the Foundation’s inaugural winner of the Finn Lowery Award.
Here's a small overview of her chat with him: Just under a year on from receiving the Finn Lowery Foundation Award, Korban tells me that he used his scholarship money last year to help fund his participation in the under 18’s team which achieved a bronze medal in the championship round. A broken collarbone at Christmas put a stop to water polo for a few months but he is now training again and hoping to play again in at least a Tier 2 team and ultimately in the under 21 team. Korban has very much appreciated the financial support the scholarship has provided to him and particularly that he is able to now meet his own water polo costs without having to rely on family to do so. The big news for Korban is that he has commenced his five-year apprenticeship with MCB Plumbing. Korban is loving the opportunity this job gives him and his work environment. He is also moving into his first flat shortly. Life is looking good for Korban. Korban encourages all club members to consider applying for the award this year. Entries for this are set to open soon and the Foundation is looking forward to hearing from anyone who would like to be considered.  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:
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. 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
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