In reference to Thursday's article 'Dreaming Big.'
By running a story about an applicant for the AMP People's Choice scholarship, it has become an uneven playing field for all the other applicants in the Far North who are also desperate to have people vote for them for thesame award. Are you now going to interview all those other applicants to give them a fair go?
You see, I have two different family members from Te Kao also wanting a share of those votes, one of them in his first year at Otago University. His first year has cost $18,000, and every time he comes home it costs us $400 to fly him home and another $400 to send him back. After countless applications for scholarships, he came to the conclusion that people don't want to fund people who excel in music. Medicine or law seem more important.
Apart from Abundant Life School, and a small grant from Ngati Kuri, he has been unsuccessful so far. So yes, of course I want them both to get the same chance that you have given to the person in your story. I feel sure that parents of other applicants will want the same chance too.
In writing this letter, I urge other people to ask you for the same privileges that you have awarded to one, and allow me to ask friends and family to give a vote to either Jackson Ratu or Ronan Ratu by going to https:/apps.facebook.com/peopleschoice/ and casting a vote.
