House of Shem A chance meeting and an opportune request has led to a Rotorua charity scoring a fundraising concert with one of the country's top reggae acts.
Te Whakapono Health Trust has teamed up with House of Shem for a special concert this month.
Tickets for the November 20 show are
already on sale and $5 from each $35 ticket will go directly towards the trust.
Trust general manager Tanya Morrison said she was excited about the joint venture and never thought it would come off.
"I went to their concert a few months ago and I spoke to them afterwards to see if they were interested," Ms Morrison said.
"To my surprise they rang back. They're pretty popular and have just finished a tour in Australia. They're booked up to the end of the year."
The concert is at the RSA and tickets are available from the venue and from NZCU. The support act is Auntie Bea who will be performing Tina Turner classics.
Te Whakapono has been behind a number of health projects in Rotorua including the Paimarie Haven of Peace units and the Te Utuhina Manaakitanga Trust alcohol and drug treatment centre.
One of its new projects is to raise $11,000 for Moving On, a stroke survivors' exercise group.
To help the trust raise as much as it can from the latest event, Ms Morrison is trying to secure sponsorship for meals for the House of Shem members as well as event lighting.
Ms Morrison said she approached House of Shem because she was a fan of their music but also because of the positive message they put across.
"It goes hand in hand with our trust."
House of Shem is also one of the acts lined up for the next Raggamuffin festival and Ms Morrison said it would be a good way for people to get to know their sound if they had never heard them before.
Te Whakapono Health Trust was established in 2005 to support fundraising efforts to set up a satellite dialysis centre in Rotorua. The trust's efforts were a huge success and having seen the establishment of the dialysis unit, it then moved on to a new project, fundraising to help establish a proposed chemotherapy unit in Rotorua.
