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APRIL 2011

This year for the Oxfam World Water Day Corporate Challenge, Harrison Grierson entered two teams of four members from two offices. One of the teams, the 'HG Torpedoes', competed in the Auckland event and the other team, the 'Dirty Harrys', competed in the Tauranga event. The yearly event is a relay for councils, corporates and suppliers in the water industry to fundraise for the Oxfam 'Water for Survival' programme. All in all, both events were a huge success with Harrison Grierson raising $1947 for Oxfam and the 3 events (Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga) raising over $70,000 in total. A lot of fun was had by all participants and supporters at the events, and all in the name of a great cause!

The Auckland event kicked off at 11am at Narrow Neck Beach under brilliant blue skies. The HG Torpedoes had fundraised enough to have them starting in 7th place out of 25 teams. The race started with an arduous swim to collect buckets, then sprints up and down the beach with a milk bottle to fill the buckets. The next team members took over to run the heavy buckets through an obstacle course. This course consisted of a variety of challenges including backwards running, hurdles, buckets on heads, jumping between tyres and a beam walk. The race finished with all 4 team members completing the overhead bucket pass, blanket drag and sprint to the finish. The day rounded off with a superb lunch with consultants, councils and suppliers from across the water sector.

The Tauranga event kicked off at 2:30pm at Main Beach, Mt Maunganui. The challenge started with a three-legged race to collect the buckets, followed by shuttling up the beach with milk bottles to fill the buckets. Three of the team members had to complete a mental challenge while the fourth swam out to a buoy and back. This was followed by a rice grain collection challenge and posing to depict messages such as 'survival', 'resilience' and 'health'. The teams then had to transfer water from the top of a bank to the bottom using their engineering skills and transfer water to new buckets using milk bottles on their heads. Finally, the exhausted teams sprinted to the finish line for a smiling photo finish.