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Become a Friend of

Featherston Booktown

Let’s Be Friends

Become a Friend of Featherston Booktown and help fund the Festival, and our Children’s Book Voucher Project. Help us promote literacy and inspire imaginations with your annual membership donation. 

 

$100 Family/Individual • $200 Business

 

If you’d like to donate more, we’d love that. Just enter the amount you’d like to donate when you register.

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You'll be taken to our POLi Pay site 

You’ll fund the Children’s Book Voucher Project

This gets us right to the heart of the matter. When you become a Friend of Featherston Booktown, your tax-deductible membership donation will directly fund The Children’s Book Voucher Project. A $100 membership buys five book vouchers for children, and a $200 membership buys ten book vouchers.

 

Each year during the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival we give out 1,500 book vouchers to all of the primary-aged school children in South Wairarapa. Children can redeem their $20 vouchers at Featherston, Martinborough, and Greytown bookshops, and at the booksellers’ stalls in Featherston during the Festival. For some children this is the first time they’ve had their own “money” to spend. Often, it’s the first time they can choose a book that they really like and want to read.  

 

You’ll fund the Festival

You make the Festival happen. After the Children’s Book Voucher Project is funded, your membership donations help us secure popular writers, illustrators, and workshops for the Festival. 

You'll be taken to our POLi Pay site 

Benefits for you

To say thanks for being a great Friend, you’ll also receive:

  • Official recognition on our website

  • An invitation to future Programme Launch Parties

  • Earlybird access to event tickets

  • A chance to meet Festival presenters

  • A monthly Featherston Booktown Newsletter

 

Your membership donation is good for one year from 1 January through to 31 December. We won’t pester you to commit to more than one year at a time; we appreciate that personal circumstances change year to year.  

 

The Friends of Featherston Booktown are a lively group of supporters who underpin our efforts and who are the driving force to help make Featherston Booktown one of New Zealand’s most valuable cultural events. Join us!

Prefer to pay direct from your own Internet ​Banking account?

  1. Using online banking please make your donation to: 

    Featherston Booktown Trust
    Bank account: 38-9017-0233637-00 
     

  2. In the reference field please put your name and "FOFB2025".
     

  3. Then email us at pete@booktown.nz to to let us know you've made a donation. We will email your charitable donation receipt for your taxes. 

Gift someone a year's membership

Why not make a gift of membership to a loved one to be a Friend of Booktown for one year with the donations going directly towards putting books into the hands of our tamariki through our Children's Book Voucher Project? 

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Friends of Featherston Booktown 2024

 

Individual and Whānau Friends

Alan Wendt & Dean Knight
Angela Torr Oza
Ashley Sault
Burton Silver
Christopher Pugsley
Craig Linkhorn
D Roberts & R Stone
Darrin Goulding & Anne Hannah
Emily Greenberg & Katie Beattie
Fraser & Margie Donald
H Drysdale & M D McCallum
Hilary Beaton & David Carswell
Jo Cormack
John Daniell
Joy C Gray
Judy Matthews
Justin Kerr
Liz Mellish
Margaret Mouat
Mary & Peter Biggs CNZM
Melissa Mead
Murray Cole
Paddy Maloney
Pete Roberts
Robyn Hambleton
Ruth Shaw
S M Sheriff
Scilla Askew & Robert Carew
Te Maire Tau & Gabe Huria
Virgina & Ernst Kunz
Andrew Morrison & Deborah Barratt
Anne Hynds & Derek McCluskie
B G Stevens
Christine Ammunson
Colin & Rosemary Bevan
Craig Renney
Daphne Geisler
Elizabeth Patchett & J W Taber
Fran Wilde
Gawith Burridge
Heather Hutton
Hon. Ron Mark
John Broeren
John Fairbrother
Joy Cowley
Julie Engebretsen & Robin Simpson
Linda Evans
Liz Stringer & Robbie Morrison
Martin & Tania Connelly
Mary McCallum
Michael Burrowes
P A & J M Stuart
Paul & Mary Mason
Richard & Margot Earwaker
Romain Busby
S J Conner
Sarah Uruski
Tana Klaricich
Tim Clarke & Tessa O’Rorke

Major Funders 2024

Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage
Trusthouse
South Wairarapa District Council
PowerCo
Creative New Zealand
The Lion Foundation
Eastern & Central Community Trust

Key Partners

Jen Bhati Property Brokers Wairarapa
The Acorn Trust
Read NZ Te Pou Maramara
JR Matthews Trust
Messines Bookshop: Military History
REAP Wairarapa
Featherston's Own Charitable Trust
Mrs Blackwell's Village Bookshop
Wairarapa Times-Age

Sponsors & Supporters

100% Proof Red
Bell Street Kindergarten
C'est Cheese
D. B. Osborne
Featherston Baker
Featherston Motels
Garden Barn
JOIY
Loco Cafe & Books
Martinborough Kindergarten
Nikau Books
Osborne Group
Pirinoa School
Regional News
Shalari Boutique
Tauherenikau Cottage
Tranzit
WCM Legal
Wairarapa Library Services
Adamson's Mobil Service Station
Big Sky
Chicken and Frog Bookshop
Designer Clothing Gallery
Featherston Community Board
Featherston Owls
Greytown Hotel
JSW Contracting
Longwood
Martinborough School
Nikau Foundation
Pain & Kershaw Martinborough
Printcraft
Rosewood Funeral Home
Shine Hair Greytown
Teepee Cider
Tusiatala Books
Waikino Book & Coffee Shop
Wairarapa Lifestyle
Almo Books
Bowen Galleries
Common Ground
Destination Wairarapa
Featherston Crystals and Curiosities
Featherston School
Greytown Kindergarten
Kahutara School
Lucia Zanmonti Photography
Mela
Noise Productions
Papawai Marae
Printspace
Rosies Furniture Removals
South Featherston School
Tinakori Books
Underhill Cottage
Waimarie Eatery & Bar
When I Die Books
Ant North
Brac & Bow
The Cook’s Loft
The Dickensian Bookshop & Tea Rooms
Featherston Ferret
For the Love of Books
Greytown School
Kuranui College
Makaro Press
Meta Riddiford Kindergarten
Oak Estate Motor Lodge
Pedro Publications
Property Wash Wairarapa
The Royal Hotel
Spreading Wairarapa
Ton of Feathers Design
Visual Industrie
Wairarapa Building Society
The White Swan
Baggage Books
Breadcraft
The Copy Press
Everest Cafe
Featherston Fire Brigade
Fraser Books
Hedleys Books
Lamb-Peters Print
Martinborough Bookshop
Mr Feather's Den
Olivo
Pete Monk Photography
Rachel Clarke Celebrant
Schoc Chocolates
St Teresa's School
Total Care Flooring Design
Vixen Burger
Wairarapa Equipment Services
Zip Plumbing Carterton

Friends of Featherston Booktown come in all shapes and sizes. They’re keen on things from rugby to cooking and roller derby to ballet, and range from home-makers to dog-walkers, cafe waiters to road workers, lawyers to public servants and everything in between. They come together to support Featherston Booktown to be part of something larger than themselves, contributing to the local community and engaging young people in something positive. 

Featherston Booktown’s driving purpose is to position Featherston, the first town over the Remutaka Hill in the Wairarapa, as a world-famous, prosperous and innovative destination for lovers of books and literature. Encouraging children and adults alike to not just open a book, but to love reading or be inspired to put pen to paper and write; to provoke creativity and broaden minds to drive fulfilment and happiness.   

Each year we host the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival weekend in May. We also stage many events throughout the year, gathering together our nation’s most acclaimed writers and thinkers spanning many genres to share their experiences and engage young and old.   

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"I took four of my grandchildren to Chicken and Frog to choose a book each for their Christmas present. A great time was had by all.

 

The gift of books is something special. Thank you for the opportunity to give book vouchers to children.”

 

    - Sue W.

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