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Nearly $20,000 has been raised for charities following the Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club successful Melbourne Cup Charity Carnival event.

Cure Kids and Alzheimers New Zealand Tauranga/WBOP will split the amount raised by the fundraiser.

About 300 people participated in the event at ASB Arena, which was sponsored and supported by Farmlands, FMG, Classic Flyers, Sun Media, Bays Print Management, P&O Cruises, Palmers, Mills Reef Winery, TravelCom, Vosper Realty, Redco, and Gyrate.

Attendees enjoyed a delicious three course meal, plenty of beverages, and bid on an exciting range of auction items, both silently and in a grand live auction hosted by Frank Vosper of Vosper Realty.

Guest speakers were Matt Hibbard, sail maker from Emirates Team New Zealand, and Jim Gibbs, from the NZ Racing Hall of Fame, who had a successful career as a jockey before turning to training. Jim is known as ‘Gentleman Jim – The Trainers' Trainer'.

Claire Rogers with daughter Leah Rogers from Sun Media judged ‘Fashion in the Field'. Juliet and Greg Allen won Best Dressed Couple, with Jennifer and Peter Glausiuss as runners up. Kay Shaloo won Best Dressed Female and Ken Shelby won Best Dressed Male.

The Charity speakers were Whitney Smith from Cure Kids and Julie Sargisson from Alzheimers Tauranga/WBOP. Also attending the event was Rotary Youth Exchange student Lara Martins.

Alzheimers Tauranga is a local charity supporting people affected by any type of dementia to live as well as possible in their own community for as long as possible. They currently provide education, information and other support to around 500 local families every year.

'A lot of the work we do is supporting families,” says Julie. 'Particularly the main carer, of someone with dementia. It can be difficult for even very close friends and family to see the full impact of caring for someone with dementia. Peer to peer support groups are of immense help and we have a wonderful volunteer programme that provides friendship and socialisation for the person with dementia, and some time out for the primary carer.”

Cure Kids is the Child Health Research Fund that was established by Rotary in 1971 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Rotary in New Zealand. With the ongoing support of Rotary, new initiatives are continually being developed to raise funds for medical research into children's life-threatening illnesses. Research projects being funded include Batten Disease that claims the lives of children, research into new anti-biotics to combat new ‘superbugs', and solar powered oxygen concentrators for Fiji to enable them to make oxygen to help children recover from pneumonia.

Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club president Nick Dangerfield was very pleased with the fundraiser, and the attendees enjoyed a relaxed and fun afternoon.

The Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club is well-established with an active membership of over 55 members. The club has formed long-term relationships with the likes of Classic Flyers in running the Tauranga City Airshows; Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club for the Annual Charity Yacht Regatta; and local businesses for the Melbourne Cup Charity Carnival Event and the new 2017 Charity Duck Race.