NPC WIN for Hutt City Mayor

Hutt City's Mayor John Terris has chosen Kiwi Can Wellington as the local children's related organisation to gift the $5000 worth of Air New Zealand travel he won by taking out the Virtual NPC Mayors Challenge.

As announced on October 30, Mr Terris led the challenge for the last four weeks of the Air New Zealand NPC season by correctly picking the outcomes of the Air New Zealand NPC matches to seal the win over his mayoral counterparts.

Run through primary and intermediate schools, Kiwi Can is a programme helping develop young people's self esteem and life skills.

Kiwi Can Wellington works with five Hutt City schools - Stokes Valley, Tui Glen, Pomare, Taita Central and Naenae Primary - to develop an "I Can" attitude through values such as respect, fairplay, friendship, health and recreation, integrity, manners, motivation, pride and teamwork.

Above - Mayor Terris presents the $5000 cheque to Kiwi Can Below - The children's welcome song

Kiwi Can says it would like to use the Air New Zealand travel prize to reward some of the children it works with by visiting educational centres around the country. Many of the children Kiwi Can supports may not have otherwise had this kind of opportunity with many having never flown in a plane before.

Mr Terris says "I think Kiwi Can is a great cause and I'm glad to support it."

Mr Terris presented the $5000 travel voucher to Kiwi Can Wellington at a special ceremony at Taita Central School at 11.00am on Thursday, November 21. The school's students were present at the ceremony and sang a welcome song to their guests.

More than a third of New Zealand's civic leaders took up the Virtual NPC Mayors Challenge to support their local Air New Zealand NPC team and to play hard to secure the $5000 travel prize. Playing Virtual NPC involved picking the results (winning team and points margin) of each match across all three divisions throughout the 2002 Air New Zealand NPC season.

The top five finishers in the Virtual NPC Mayors Challenge were:

Place Name Region Total Points:

1 - John Terris, Mayor of Hutt City - 599
2 - Jan Beange, Mayor of Tauranga - 576
3 - Peter Tennent, Mayor of New Plymouth - 556
4 - Tom Harrison, Mayor of Marlborough - 553
5 - Meng Foon, Mayor of Gisborne - 551

Virtual NPC is a joint initiative between Air New Zealand and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and has attracted more than 67,000 New Zealanders. The overall Virtual NPC winner is Bruce Mitchell of Napier who receives $10,000 worth of Air New Zealand travel. All players who are Air New Zealand Airpoints members will have their points earned from making correct predictions in Virtual NPC converted into Airpoints.

To find out more about Virtual NPC check out www.virtualnpc.co.nz.