Children's charity unwittingly linked to male strip show

The advertising material for the Christchurch Heroes Rugby Team fundraiser. Photo / Facebook.

A children's charity that cares for vulnerable families has found itself unwittingly linked to a gay rugby club's strip show fundraiser.

The Christchurch Heroes rugby team named Cholmondeley Children's Centre as the recipient of their "Show us your Hero" strip and drag show.

Advertising for the August event shows a line-up of team players in the nude with the banner "Show us your Hero" across their privates.

The newly formed team is the only gay and inclusive rugby union team in Canterbury.

A spokeswoman from Cholmondeley said the organisation had no idea it had been linked to the strip show until a member of the public emailed to complain.

"I immediately contacted the organisers of the event and asked not to be associated with it," she said.

"They were very friendly and accomodating and within ten minutes they had all of the links to us removed."

The woman said the charity, which provides residential care to children when their families are in crisis, is 90 per cent community funded.

It was founded in 1925 and provides residential care for more than 400 children every year.

Children in its care were from families that had been affected by trauma, bereavement or other stressful events.

"You have to appreciate from a charity point of view we have no control of who is fundraising for us until it is in the public domain.

"We also need to fundraise $1.5 million a year to do what we do within the community but it's a no-brainer that it was a fundraiser we could not be associated with."

Rāwā Karetai of Heroes Rugby said the team had decided they wanted to support other "heroes" within the community and thought it was a good opportunity.

"They didn't say why but I imagine it was because it's a strip show," Karetai said.

"We've dealt with us between the two of us and we have taken it off line. We took it down straight away and there was no problem."

Karetai said the fundraiser would go ahead and the team would find another group to donate to.

"We need to raise some money for some equipment for the team but we also wanted to give back to the community."

"The great thing about the LGBTI community is we know how to have a great dance party, the other fundraiser we had was a sold out event."

Karetai said the rainbow team's first season had gone well and support had been strong from other teams.

And Cholmondeley said they were keen to find a more suitable fundraising opportunity with the club in the future.

"They would like to support us in the future in another event and we are working out what that would be but it won't be a strip show or a drag show," the spokeswoman said.

"It looks like a fun event though."