{"id":640859,"date":"2026-10-25T12:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640859\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T12:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:36:14","slug":"rotorua-harcourts-dancing-for-hospice-2026-raises-record-breaking-180000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640859\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua Harcourts Dancing for Hospice 2026 raises record-breaking $180,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rotorua Community Hospice fundraising and marketing manager Jessica Meade told the Rotorua Daily Post the event raised a record-breaking $180,000, beating its $120,000 target.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so thrilled.\u201d <\/p>\n

Everyone at Hospice and the board were \u201cstill buzzing from it\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that our clinical team can continue to care for patients with a life-ending illness free of charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meade said the money would go towards the $1.2 million Hospice needed to raise annually from the community.<\/p>\n

It meant its clinical team could continue providing patients with \u201cthe same amazing and expert care and support\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community is so generous, and I think that this is a really good example of just how awesome our community is. They really came out in force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meade said a few factors contributed to the record result, including some \u201cgreat grants\u201d from Pub Charity, One Foundation and Harcourts Foundation and a reduction in catering expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the fundraising on the night was just phenomenal … it blew our socks off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The money raised from the Campbell Infrastructure People\u2019s Choice Award \u201cwent through the roof\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the best it\u2019s ever been by $12,000 … so it was hugely competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Groot and Audrey Russell won the People\u2019s Choice Award for their opening performance of the foxtrot.<\/p>\n

\"AudreyAudrey Russell and David Groot won the Harcourts Dancing for Hospice 2026 People’s Choice Award. Photo \/ Tracey Scott<\/p>\n

Meade said the inaugural \u201cHands Up for Hospice\u201d initiative raised more than $46,000.<\/p>\n

Attendees could raise their hands and donate different amounts as they were called out.<\/p>\n

Meade said the event\u2019s \u201cstaples\u201d also went well, including the silent and live auctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything just worked together to create this amazing result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meade also acknowledged the event\u2019s committed sponsors.<\/p>\n

NZME is the official media sponsor of Dancing for Hospice.<\/p>\n

Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rotorua Community Hospice fundraising and marketing manager Jessica Meade told the Rotorua Daily Post the event raised a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[114847,2246,2346,1259,28645,13116,7502,156,2082,8418,34746,9832,23600,13021,23807,111,139,69,2515,11596,6274,1327,1961,1530],"class_list":["post-640859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-114847","tag-2246","tag-award","tag-community","tag-competitive","tag-contest","tag-dancing","tag-entertainment","tag-for","tag-fundraising","tag-harcourts","tag-helped","tag-hospice","tag-hugely","tag-initiative","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-raise","tag-raises","tag-recordbreaking","tag-rotorua","tag-this","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}