Whakapapa 2023

Earlier this year I joined the board of the True Athlete Project. I believe how the work they are doing can be transformative for many people, and at all levels of sport. To support annual fundraising efforts, I will be running in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on October 29th. Any donation is greatly appreciated. My hope is to raise funding to support at least one athlete through the mentorship program who might otherwise might not be able to. 

Thank you!

Ryan

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. 

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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.

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