26/09/2026
🍫👑 CHOCOLATE QUEENS & KINGS — YOU HAVE DONE IT AGAIN. 👑🍫
$302 raised TODAY for I AM HOPE 🩷🥾
That takes us to an incredible:
🥾 $96,952 — Gumboot total Gumboot Friday
❤️ $135,080 — GRAND TOTAL
Let that sink in.
For six years, we have stood in a carpark, rain or shine, cold or heat, fundraising for the mental health and wellbeing of New Zealanders.
Six years of showing up.
Six years of asking people to stop, listen, donate and care.
Six years of chocolate, gumboots, conversations, laughter, tears, exhaustion and an absolutely phenomenal amount of mahi.
And tonight, I need to say something that isn’t easy.
We feel invisible.
Sometimes you can give everything you have to something that matters deeply, and still wonder if anyone actually sees you.
I have said before that since I walked out of Cadbury, I have felt like a worthless piece of s**t.
But then I look at these numbers.
$135,080.
And I remember what this is actually about.
It is about every person who has struggled in silence.
Every whānau who has been affected.
Every person who needed someone to ask, “Are you okay?”
Every life that might be changed because somebody chose to give.
So to our Chocolate Queens and Kings — please know this:
YOU ARE SEEN. 🩷
Your effort is phenomenal.
To everyone who has donated, pulled on a gumboot, shared a post, stopped for a kōrero, volunteered, encouraged us or simply believed in what we’re doing — thank you.
Six years.
One carpark.
One massive kaupapa.
And $135,080 raised for the mental health and wellbeing of New Zealanders.
That’s not invisible.
That’s impact.
🍫👑 CHOCOLATE QUEENS & KINGS — I SEE YOU.
Now let’s keep going. 🩷🥾
