A first for Renee Holmes

HONOURED: Renee Holmes wears the korowai (Maori decorated cloak) presented to her in Auckland on Wednesday night as the first recipient of the Tania Dalton Foundation Trustees Award. She received the award at the completion ceremony for 11 inaugural recipients of the Tania Dalton Foundation scholarship programme. The award was for the scholarship recipient who went “above and beyond” the expectations of the programme. The korowai will be on display at the foundation office until Holmes returns next year to pass it on to the class of 2019 at their completion ceremony. Holmes is shown at the function venue with a picture of Silver Fern netballer Tania Dalton, in whose memory the foundation was established to help promising sportswomen. Picture supplied

GISBORNE sportswoman Renee Holmes is the first recipient of the Tania Dalton Foundation Trustees Award.

To mark the honour, she was presented with a korowai at the inaugural Tania Dalton Foundation completion ceremony in Auckland on Wednesday night.

Holmes wore the korowai for the rest of the evening, but for the coming year it will be on display at the Tania Dalton Foundation office, until Holmes returns next year to pass it on to the class of 2019 at their completion ceremony.

It has been a big month for Holmes. First she played in the Possibles-versus-Probables trial for the Black Ferns rugby team, then she made the squad for games against a Barbarians side, and on Saturday in Nelson she made her Black Ferns debut, against the Barbarians.

In March 2018, Holmes, then 18 years old, was named as one of 11 inaugural recipients of the Tania Dalton Foundation scholarship programme.

For three years, these promising sportswomen were given financial, mentoring and personal development support to “unlock their talent and enable them to live their biggest life”.

The award presented to Holmes on Wednesday night recognised the scholarship recipient who best embraced all aspects of the scholarship, who had gone “above and beyond”, developed positive relationships with the foundation, her scholarship partner and mentor, and had given back to both the foundation and the community.

Wednesday night’s “class of 2018” completion ceremony was to celebrate the young sportswomen’s achievements over the past three years and to acknowledge sponsors, supporters and Tania Dalton, the Silver Fern netballer in whose memory the foundation was established.

The three-year scholarship programme provides financial support, mentoring, and personal development workshops to 12 talented and deserving young sportswomen each year.

A pay-it-forward programme gets the scholarship recipients into communities and schools, and has them spending time with young athletes.

Holmes said her time in the scholarship programme had been life-changing. She would not have pulled on the black jersey in Nelson last weekend if it hadn’t been for the foundation and its support.