There's nothing like a riot of clowns tumbling from quirky cars or a fire-engine foam fight to bring smiles to kids' faces, and it was smiles the Variety Bash was after when the troupe toured schools in Canterbury's hard-hit earthquake zone this year.
The mostly volunteer participants raise about $100,000 between them each year, with this Bash distributing over $72,000 in grants to sick, disabled or disadvantaged kids from Waiouru to Akaroa.
Special needs students receive iPads; bedspreads for Ronald McDonald House; a Ford Sunshine Coach for Birthright, a group assisting single mothers; money for glasses or special lessons; books and footballs; it all brightens days but it was the Liberty Swings that really touched hearts.
Ordinary dads and mums with a petrolhead streak and - vital to the spirit of the Bash - a robust sense of humour were reduced to tears seeing severely disabled kids normally barred from the playground at last feel that weightlessness riding a swing brings - their delighted smiles enough to keep Bashers fund-raising year after year.
