Kapiti Mayor Ross Church serves up charity burger

BURGER BONANZA: Holding a giant cheque, from left, BurgerFuel Kapiti manager Jronn Hizole, Arielle Colls, Kapiti Mayor Ross Church, Anna Caton and Leah Maeosik.

When Kapiti mayor Ross Church opened the new BurgerFuel Kapiti store he thought he would just be doing the normal thing like cutting a ribbon.

Instead he ended up cooking the store's first official burger which was auctioned off and raised a cool $1000 for Wellington Free Ambulance.

"I said what will we do with the first burger, and they said I'd just eat it, and I thought why not auction it for a charity.

"They said 'we're happy with that' and there was a great buzz and atmosphere.

"So I went around to some mates and teed them up saying 'I would bid a $100 bucks for this burger'.

"The bidding kept going up and the excitment was amazing.

"The final bid was $505 and then BurgerFuel came in and said they would match dollar for dollar.

"It was a really cool night and we ended up with a very special $1000 for Wellington Free Ambulance."

BurgerFuel Kapiti manager Jronn Hizole said the store, off Kapiti Rd, in Paraparaumu, had been "warmly welcomed by the community".

"It's really going well for all of us."