Five minutes with Shear 4 A Cause event manager Jared Manihera

Shear 4 A Cause event manager Jared Manihera, of Alexandra, is organising another shear-a-thon at Wohelo Station in West Otago on Waitangi Weekend. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

For Shear 4 A Cause, five men will shear sheep for 24 hours over a 32-hour period to raise money for their respective charities at Wohelo Station in West Otago on the Saturday and Sunday of Waitangi Weekend. Southern Rural Life reporter Shawn McAvinue spends five minutes with Shear 4 A Cause event manager Jared Manihera, of Alexandra.

Q. Who are the five shearers, where are they from and who are they raising funds for?

Brodie Horrell, of Gore (Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter Trust); Alex Clapham, of Roxburgh (Farmstrong); Matt Hunt, of Waikaka (KidzWay Tapanui) Jack Gordon, of Timaru (Rural Support Trust) and Kalin Chrystal, of Hawke’s Bay (Talk Peach Gynaecological Foundation).

A sixth stand in the woolshed will be for invited shearers, who will be raising funds for Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Q. How many shear-a-thons have you been involved with at Wohelo Station?

This will be my third. The Shear 4 Blair event this year raised more than $200,000 for the Southland Charity Hospital Trust.

Q. Why have you gone from holding the shear-a-thons every two years to annually?

We are holding it next year so we can then hold it every two years and it won’t be in the same year as Southern Field Days in Waimumu, which is also held every second year.

Q. How is the organisation of the event going?

It’s coming together quite good. We are creating two extra stands in the woolshed, which will make it easier to livestream all of the event on shear4acause.co.nz.

Te Waka Wahine Hauora - The Woman’s Health Bus have accepted an invitation to provide services in their screening bus at the event. A lot of the people in the shearing industry work in a lot of different areas and sometimes they don’t make their doctor’s appointments so I thought it would be a good service to have there.

Q. Have you considered holding the event anywhere else?

There’s not many places that will let you shear 10,000 sheep in 24 hours and have spares available if we go past the number we plan to shear.

Nelson [Wohelo Station owner Nelson Hancox] and his family put in so much for the event and I don’t know if there would be other farmers who would do the same.

Q. What keeps you involved in the event?

I grew up in a shearing shed - my parents were contractors for about 25 years and my Dad always taught me that if you can do something for someone, you should.