Whakapapa 2023

Andrii Cherkashyn (2023 TAP Mentee) & Erik Rowbotham (2023 TAP Mentor) are raising funds for the True Athlete Project (TAP) charity from August till November 2023.

We are both participating in the TAP Global Mentorship Programme this year and want to raise £950 (the equivalent of one Mentee Scholarship for TAP's Global Mentoring Programme next year) to pay it forwards.

£950 is our main goal, but if we can reach anywhere near £28,500 that would fund the whole Global Mentoring Programme for 2024 - meaning no Mentee would need to pay to participate in the Programme next year (it's a stretch! but maybe we can get close...).

To raise funds and donations we are offering our sporting expertise in the form of coaching (Fencing Coaching from Andrii & Archery Coaching from Erik) to our local clubs & communities.

Even if you haven't participated in one of our coaching sessions but would like to donate, we would very much welcome all the support possible - and so will next year's Mentee's who will benefit from your contributions.

More about TAP and the fundraising programme is below:

Whakapapa is The True Athlete Project's summer fundraising campaign.  When we designed this fundraising challenge, we knew that it needed to be about more than just raising money; it should also bring the TAP community together and build on our shared mission to create a better world through sport. 

To this end, we have been inspired by a Māori concept, which is at the heart of the New Zealand All Blacks culture, called Whakapapa.

Whakapapa says that each of us are part of an unbreakable chain of people, stretching back in time to our first ancestors and forward in time to the end of time. This chain represents our tribe. We share a purpose with these people. We belong. It is a powerful idea that suggests that we will be judged not on our material successes in life, but on what we did for our tribe.

With this fundraising campaign we aim to connect the current cohort of mentors and mentees on our Global Mentoring Programme with next years generation of mentoring pairings.

This is about both giving back and paying it forward, and we envisage it becoming a wave that passes through each cohort, connecting them in an unbreakable chain.

#CommunityResponsibility

Who are The True Athlete Project? 

TAP is a US and UK based charity which aims to build a more compassionate world through sport. We design and deliver a range of creative, mindfulness-based programmes for athletes and coaches at all levels of sport - from primary school children to Olympians and Parlaympians. We work with 40+ sports, in over 15 countries. 

We also deliver a pioneering athlete mentoring programme, pairing world-class athletes with young people in a year-long nurturing relationship. Our aim is to unleash sports true potential to holistically nurture the long-term personal development of each and every athlete.