Graeme Dingle Foundation 2024 Drop For Youth: Three barbers go skydiving for charity at 12,000ft

The Graeme Dingle Foundation's Drop For Youth raises funds to support child and youth development. Photo / Graeme Dingle Foundation

The Barber Shack aims to raise $4500 for the Graeme Dingle Foundation 2024 Drop For Youth Western Bay of Plenty to support child and youth development.

If they reach their goal, three barbers will skydive from 12,000ft.

“We just wanted to do our part,” Barber Shack owner Nikita Davis said.

Asa Wimutu, Michael Perring and Mitchell Hunia are the barbers who will be skydiving, but Davis said their fellow barbers would provide plenty of support.

All three Barber Shack locations will be represented: Pāpāmoa, Mount Maunganui, and Greerton.

“We are going to have to do some fundraising to reach our goal.”

If all goes according to plan, the skydive will be on November 24 at the Tauranga Skydive facility.

A Givealittle page has been launched, hoping to raise $4500.

The Graeme Dingle Foundation, Western Bay of Plenty, helps about 3800 children each week, regional manager Dan Allen-Gordon said.

“There is a much greater need than just that. We have about 190,000 attendance hours in our programmes.

“We could double what we do.”

Established in 2004, it runs several programmes to help young people improve their mental health.

“We push kids outside their boundaries to extend their resilience and life skills,” Allen-Gordon said.

The Graeme Dingle Foundation offered Kiwi Can, Stars, Career Navigator, and Project K programmes.

“One of our programmes, Project K, we are sending year 10 students off on a journey in the wilderness for three weeks,” Allen-Gordon said. “It’s incredibly healing, the outdoors for our kids, and they’ll also have a mentor.”

The idea of partnering with the Barber Shack for the skydive was easy for Gordon and the foundation as it was already acting as a positive role model in the community, Allen-Gordon said.

“They have so many young people going, and it’s a great healthy place for young men, in particular, to have good conversations.”

The Barber Shack will join businesses across Tauranga participating in the skydive, the foundation’s business development manager Charlotte Brown said.

“We contact all the people that have done it in previous years and ask if they want to nominate somebody,” Brown said.

“We also have been going to an area and just going into businesses and chatting to people.”

This method resulted in the barber shop signing up and being willing to jump out of an aeroplane to inspire youth in Tauranga.

“A really big part of our programme is teaching young people that they’ve got everything they need inside to overcome obstacles,” Brown said.

To donate to the Graeme Dingle Foundation, Western Bay of Plenty, please visit dinglefoundation.org.nz.

- SunLive