Schools ‘blown away’ by business support

Cambridge’s Adopt a School programme is doing great things for local business.

There are 55 stores taking part in the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce programme which encourages shop owners to change their window display for the week to support a school taking part in the Maadi Cup.

Wrights Bookstore has taken on three schools for the week and says that they’ve all been blown away by the support.

“We’ve got Onewhero, Lindisfarne and Westlake… this is huge for Cambridge and the shopkeepers need to get it in their heads that if you participate that people will spend in your shop,” said Marie Coxhead, from Wrights Bookstore.

Marie and her colleague Alex Davey spend last Friday and Saturday making up their display and say it’s a great talking point with the customers.

“We’ve had huge response from the public and rowers,” Marie said. “The Onewhero team actually came in and they were absolutely blown away, they were so chuffed because they thought only the big schools would get chosen.”

Wrights Bookstore were delighted with their schools – they love hearing the “amazing” stories of the small schools.

Alex and Marie took a walk down the street to check out their competition.

“The chemist and the sports centre are both great, they’ve done really well.”

Dale and Jay Marshall from Sports World have adopted Christchurch Boys and Girls High Schools and spent two days on their display.

“Dale made the singlet out of cardboard. It took about two days for all of it.  But it’s been worth it,” Jay said. “We’ve sponsored the Karapiro rowing and they’ve done a lot for us so it’s good to give something back.”

The winner of this year’s Adopt a School competition was Garden Arts Studio who won a T shirt signed by Mahe Drysdale and also one signed by Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.