Boots first step toward sports career

The donations for the Hawke's Bay Today Bring Yer Boots campaign were loaded into nine Sport Hawke's Bay vehicles yesterday, to be dispersed to needy sportspeople in the region. Sport Hawke's Bay commercial manager Kevin Murphy (left), development officer Sally McKenzie and Hawke's Bay Today editor Andrew Austin are pictured with some of the boots. Photo / Duncan Brown

It was a bootiful day as Sports Hawke's Bay staff Kevin Murphy and Sally McKenzie filled their boots with boots yesterday.

The mainly second-hand boots and other sports shoes, mostly in good condition -- even if still showing some signs of last year's sportsfield engagements across Hawke's Bay -- had been gathered in the second Bring Yer Boots campaign run in conjunction with Hawke's Bay Today.

While the target was boots for children whose families may not have been able to afford new gear -- and whose winter season gets under way in most winter codes today -- there was an array of adults' boots and shoes, including turf and golf shoes.

Ultimately, there are too many to count, but early estimates yesterday were that there were at least as many as the almost-300 pairs donated last year. As with last year, some of the footwear is new.

Sport Hawke's Bay development officer Sally McKenzie said seven of the primary schools on which her work focuses are likely to receive the bulk of the sportswear, but she wants other schools and sports clubs to contact her if they have players needing the boots and shoes.

Andrew Austin, the editor of Hawke's Bay Today, said: "It's been a fantastic response from the public -- Hawke's Bay showing its generosity once again."

"We look forward to seeing all those young people and their families participating in their sport around the region, and going on to very successful careers in the future," he said. "Most definitely we will be doing it all again next year."