Ewen Gilmour's last charity drive

Tauranga's Kidicorp fire truck and Silverdale's Cupcakes will be along for the ride

Variety Mini bash traverses Wainui to Whangarei

Ewen Gilmour's last Variety Bash event will launch from Wainui School on Friday October 17th, with the famous funny-man's GT Radial stretch limo leading the 24-car classic cavalcade as it calls in at schools in Silverdale, Red Beach, Orewa and Warkworth.

Along the way it'll donate grants, including l$1000-worth of life jackets, sensory Junior developmental equipment for Wainui School and will contribute $1000 toward a specialised wheelchair, so a Kaikohe teenager can play in the Parafed Northland Men's Wheelchair Team.

The line-up will also put plenty of smiles on young dials, a fitting tribute to the already-missed Gilmour, who would have been on the event this year. Gilmour was a staunch Bash supporter, and an ambassador and fund-raiser for Variety - The Children's Charity, and will be on the Bash in spirit, remembered by all the regulars as much for his hard work as for his irrepressible sense of humour.

But the Mini Bash is not about being sad - it's about entertaining and fund-raising for Kiwi kids.

Bash Coordinator Murray 'Mojo' O'Donnell welcomes anyone to meet the Bashers along the route, especially if they drop some change in a Variety Bucket. The Bash convoy will be hard to miss, for it'll include an electric-blue fire engine in Kidicorp colours, a lime-green Mini with a cupcake atop its roof and the Alan Sutton airplane - a legal car - among its numbers.

"It'll be a busy day," O'Donnell says. "We'll leave Wainui at 9am, get to Silverdale Primary School by 9.35am, then on to Red Beach Primary by 10.25am where we'll donate a Liberty Swing, designed to give kids in wheelchairs that weightless feeling."

Then it's on to Orewa School for 11.25am, Waiwera Thermal Resort for lunch, and finally to Warkworth Primary School, before heading up to Moirs Point Camp for the Night.

On Saturday the convoy will get out their spades and set to for a working bee at the camp, before heading North to Whangarei for a contest - to see which team can raise the most money in small change by shaking buckets downtown.

The day will end at Tutukaka, with Sunday marking the event's official end at Marsden Yacht and Boat Club.