Community unites for scout trip

Wairarapa country musos, ballroom and tap dancers, a young juggler, a Shakespearian actor and one of New Zealand's most beloved blues artists will be hitting the stage so an adventurous group of Greytown youngsters can hit the rapids.

A group of local parents are hosting a Variety Night, featuring music and dance acts, a silent auction and a cash bar, in order to raise funds for the Greytown Scouts to attend the 20th New Zealand Scout Jamboree at the end of the year.

Greytown local Trish Morison, whose 12-year-old son Harvey is an active member of Greytown Scouts, used her networking skills to track down all the performers - which range from a champion rock n'roll dancer in his 70s to a group of teens tapping to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

"It'll be a great night," says Mrs Morison, a lecturer with UCOL 's nursing programme.

"Where else are you going to get this much talent at one event, with supper, for 30 bucks?"

Musical acts performing at the Variety Night include Warratahs frontman and Wairarapa local Barry Saunders, his daughter's band Your Long Lost Uncle, Featherston country rocker Burton Trent and local minister Andy Eldred.

Dancers include students from the Greytown-based Jacqui Murray school of dance, exhibition ballroom dancers and 72-year-old rock n' roll national champion Robert Mazoyer.

The event will be held at the Kuranui College Hall and Mrs Morison has even managed to rustle up a couple of talented Kuranui students to add to the line-up - young juggler Dan Carlisle, who appeared on New Zealand's Got Talent and Egan Tearle who won an award for his Shakespearian performances.

"We'll also have a Year 10 Kuranui student doing the lighting for us," says Mrs Morison.

"The community has been great - everyone we've asked to help us out has said yes. All our acts are performing for free. And Kuranui gave us the venue for free as well."

Greytown Scouts needs to raise more than $19,000 - $1200 per child - to send its 16 young members to the jamboree, to be held in Feilding in December.

"They'll be cooking all their own food, they'll need their own tents, they'll need to pay for their accommodation on site," says Mrs Morison.

"It's a lot of money - and the kids can't find $1200 on their own."

The jamboree, which will be attended by at least 3000 scouts, will include activities such as white-water rafting, sailing, abseiling, kayaking and orienteering.

The Variety Night Fundraiser will be held on Saturday, July 6, at Kuranui College Hall, and tickets are $30. For more information, contact Trish Morison on 027 200 5101, or at gtnscouts@gmail.com.