People who know me well are aware that I have a passion for Fastpitch Softball. I am currently a Level 4 Badged New Zealand Umpire and on the Board of North Harbour Softball Association. I was recently elected Chair of the Board due to the previous Chair stepping down. I have always been of the belief that if there is a need or a gap where I have the skills, time, and capacity, I will put my hand up to help. That’s why I am on the Glenfield Primary School Board, a Softball umpire, and on the NHSA Board. I am really excited about the direction of North Harbour Softball, and what we are trying to provide to our athletes, supporters and families going forward. One of our big initiatives is the development of a set of batting cages. These batting cages will provide crucial training opportunities across all our age groups, it will allow our North Harbour Representatives to train without having to Howick (the nearest commercial batting cages) and will hopefully generate a small ongoing cashflow from the rental to players and teams across our clubs. It also creates a dry training space to conduct other trainings (eg catcher / pitcher, fitness, mental skills, umpire plate mechanics and so on). To fund the development of the cages we are looking for corporates, groups, and people to become sponsors (or donors). At North Harbour Softball, you will have exposure to: · 689 Junior players (and growing year on year) · 586 Senior players (and growing year on year) · Umpires / Scorers / Coaches / Managers · Along with the above, there are all the supporters and families that come out to the park during the week to watch games, attend trainings and to be actively involved around the park. There will also be exposure during winter to people attending Albany Football United games and trainings. North Harbour is also hosting the Softball New Zealand Women’s Open championship this season (14 women’s teams attended the 23/24 competition from around New Zealand) and the Men’s Open Championship in 24/25 (20 teams attended the 23/24 competition). Attached are schematics of how the cages will look and where they will be located, and our initial sponsorship proposal (we have evolved the cages since then). If you are interested in sponsoring the project, or want to know more about, please reach out to me via LinkedIn, or David Gillanders (General Manager) at [email protected] Alternatively, if you can’t provide support now, please like and share this post so we can leverage our networks to obtain as much exposure as possible. Also, if you can’t help financially but can assist with materials, concrete or any other structural components, please reach out. We are currently looking for a structural engineer to help assist in the next step in the project (we have architectural drawings that you can work from). If you do have any questions, please reach out to me.
Mariska Norval
2mo
Wishing you success!
Head of Internal Communication at Mitre 10 NZ
2moGreat to see Mike! I knew you had more than the ‘eye candy’ you insist on contributing to webinars 😆