The Grocery Charity Ball 2009

In 2009, the Trustees reverted back to having just one beneficiary for the Grocery Charity Ball. StarJam did a great presentation - they were both passionate and practical and the Trustees were impressed with what StarJam was achieving with very few resources. It was obvious that the donation from the 2009 Ball would make a real difference to what they could accomplish in the future.

StarJam creates events and environments where people with disabilities can have the opportunity to express their gifts and talents - and the general public can in turn experience those gifts and talents.

Started in April 2002 when Julian Lloyd Webber (on a concert tour in New Zealand at the time) was invited to jam with 10 year-old Katherine Rees, StarJam was launched in November the same year with the inaugural “Stars Thru Their Eyes” show, which featured eight young people interviewing celebrities.

Since the launch, StarJam has produced eight major shows, performed at more than a dozen special occasions for conferences and events, as well as taken a number of young people on ‘jamming’ trips to the USA. The list of stars that have become involved with StarJam is a celebrity "who's who" - from Kiwis like Peter Jackson, Lucy Lawless and Dave Dobbyn - to international mega-stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Dick Van Dyke.

For more information, visit www.starjam.org.nz.

$205,000 Raised for StarJam

$205,000 Provides a Great Fillip to StarJam
A few weeks after all the pledges had been collected for the 2009 Grocery Charity Ball, the Trustees were thrilled to find that the final tally for the night exceeded $200,000 for just the third time in the Ball's history.

"It's been a fabulous response" said Grocery Charity Ball Trust Chairman Don Graham. "When we picked StarJam to be the 2009 Beneficiary, the Trustees believed that they were a very worthy charity. But it's great to have that confirmed by the grocery industry itself .. their enthusiasm to support StarJam has been fantastic!"

Julie Bartlett, Founder and Chief Executive of StarJam, was equally effusive. "We recognise that there's a lot of worthy charities out there competing for the donor dollar, so it was great to be chosen by the grocery industry as the beneficiary of the Ball. The funds will be life-changing for us .. and enable StarJam to do many of the things that were previously on our wish-list only."

Recently, Trustees of the Grocery Charity Ball handed over the BIG cheque to StarJam .. along with a real cheque that the bank will be happy to cash. Seven New Zealand charities have now benefited by more than $1.4 million from the six Balls that have been held since 2004.