Friday September 30, 2005;

Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre, Auckland

Raising funds for facial paralysis surgery for a wee lad called Zach Palmer. We'd known Zach's parents for some time, and they were doing sausage sizzles, and all manner of fundraising events to enable Zach to get the much-required surgery he needed. We had a wild idea that we could do something on a grander scale with a quiz night, and after a few phone calls, things began to fall into place. It was a true charity quiz where 100% of the money raised went to fund an operation for Zach in Toronto, Canada. Waipuna Hotel, Fosters NZ, our host John Hawkesby, many generous prize donors and volunteers plus our wonderful celebrities all came together to see $31,316 raised towards the $100,000 cost of getting Zach to the land of the maple leaf.

Each team paid $1,000 for a table of 9, and a celebrity was then drawn out of a hat to join that table. Attendees included our wonderful compere John Hawkesby, Michael Jones, Siobhan Marshall, Sid Going, Sara Wiseman, Neil Waka, Ricki Herbert, Kathryn Harby- Williams, Kyle Mills, Inga Tuigamala, Andrej Lemanis, Renee Wright, Ewen Gilmour, Miss New Zealand Amber Peebles and Hamish Marshall to name a few - with the winning team, The Crazy Medics being helped along by their politics expert, Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey.

Prizes were awarded to the first ten teams, and such was the generosity of our sponsors, that anyone in those teams got their money back! From Yves St Laurent perfume to Pumpkin Patch vouchers, a trip on KZ1 to tickets to the Auckland Philharmonia, primo seats at the upcoming Australia v NZ rugby league test to signed NZ Breakers' singlets, Akarana Golf Club packages to a $5,000 extreme adventure day - there was something for everyone. And that didn't include the extra prizes John Hawkesby gave away every round for our unique version of It's In The Zach! And every single attendee received a personalised football to commemorate the event.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

Clifford Morgan and the team at Waipuna Hotel

Crown Lager - supplied by Fosters New Zealand

Blue 10 Design / More Oomph!

John Melville at R Logistics

Pumpkin Patch

Auckland Philharmonia

Team New Zealand Sailing

Piper Heidseick

Akarana Golf Club

Exposure Signage Concepts

New Zealand Rugby League

Parkside Publications

Lotto Sportswear

Fuller's Ferries

MOTAT

Telstraclear

Village SkyCity Cinemas

Masport

Auckland Airport

Shell New Zealand