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Help my Brother achieve his skateboarding dreams

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Kia Ora
My name is Hayley; I am one of Matts's older sisters.
I've decided to put together this go-fund-me on behalf of my little brother to help raise funds to support his campaign to get to the 2024 Olympic Games.
 
A-bit about Matthew, where do I start?
Born and Bred in Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt growing up he always was the daredevil of the family, always outside playing, climbing, and trying different activities from his Bmx racing and soccer to unicycles, usually stopping after a few weeks. That was until he found a Skateboard, since then at around 10 years old you'd see him take his skateboard everywhere. From taking it to school to skating on gravel at his Whanuas house in the small east coast town of Ruatoria.
His love of skateboarding grew and with that, he was able to be featured multiple times in skateboarding magazines, on National Tv shows, and won skateboarding competitions across NZ. It has also taken him around the world, multiple times to Australia and once to the USA.
 
Matthew also doesn't shy away from helping the skateboarding community. Often takes younger skaters under his wing to help them progress and fall in love with skating. At the same time, he would try to guide them into mature adults, as he has seen a lot of talent go to waste.
He was recently the president of the Wellington Skateboarding Association, This saw him help build relationships with local and regional councils, having input in future skatepark upgrades across wellington and has also managed to help his local skatepark in Wainuiomata get a resurface. Something that he helped start 10 + years ago.
While doing this he has also managed to finish a certificate in Sports coaching which he hopes he can use to help develop the next generation of skateboarders

In early 2020, he got the call from SkateboardingNZ to represent NZ at the Oceania qualifying event in Melbourne. He did well managing to place 7th against some of the best skateboarders in the world. This Started his Olympic dream, something he has told us he had never thought was a possibility growing up.
In 2021 he was lucky enough to get a call from The NZ team to help promote the 2020 games in Nz. He and another skater spent 41 days driving the length of New Zealand and back towing the world's largest skateboard, stopping at as many communities across NZ as possible.

Matthew has dedicated most of his life to skateboarding, often skating upwards of 6-8 hours a day skating 6 sometime 7 days a week. This dedication has come from his desire to turn his hobby into a profession. Matthew has realised the scarifies it takes to achieve his goals
and with the support of his partner, has recently decided to uplift their life here in New Zealand to move to Brisbane Australia. He feels that this is the next stage toward his dream of becoming a professional skateboarder.

This brings us to the go fund a side of things.
With the announcement that skateboarding is now a permanent sport at the Olympics Matthew has set another goal for himself. This is to one day represent New Zealand at the Olympic games. He understands that this will be a long and hard journey but it is one that he is willing to try his best to achieve. 
With his Olympic journey just starting, Matthew has realised that he will need to self fund his journey. As skateboarding is a new event at the Olympics, the support structures are not in place yet. 

The next Event he needs to attend is in Rome, Italy (26th June-3rd July),  with another event later on in the year that we  will update when more information is available 
The Rome event is crucial for him to attend as a good placing will put him in an excellent position going into the second event later in the year and will help set him up for following events in the years to come.
Matthew believes that attending the Competition in Rome will give him a good opportunity to be seen by potential sponsors and people that could help with funding and future support, while also giving him the experience of what it takes to compete at a professional level. 
 
We hope to continue to raise as much money as possible to help support my brother in his journey. 
To get Matthew to Rome we expect to need anywhere from $8000-$10000, with the cost of travel being high with the unforeseen changes that can happen.
We understand that this is a high amount of money but we want to help ease the financial stress so Matthew can focus as much attention on Preparing for this competition.
In saying this any money donated does not guarantee that he will qualify for the Olympics, but it will help give him the best opportunity to try his best to achieve his goals.

The funds will be used to help support the following
Travel, flights, taxis etc
Food
Accommodation
Equipment
Insurance, travel, health

Matthew also believes that if he achieves excellent results at Rome and future events, this will help create opportunities for future New Zealander aspiring skateboarders. 
 
Any Help is appreciated, even just a share of the link
 
Don't hesitate to reach out to him directly if you want to help in any specific way or have any ideas to help my Brother achieve his dreams.
 
Below is his Instagram to check him out in action, as well as a few links to interviews and videos that have been made about his journey so far
 
https://www.instagram.com/mattmarkland/?hl=en
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip-mx7es8Gc&t=532s
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGIq-otveUg
 
Ngā Mihi
Hayley Markland
 



 
 
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Donations 

  • Marc Koh
    • $10
    • 2 yrs
  • Nick Fellows
    • $100
    • 2 yrs
  • Eugene Tuhaka
    • $50
    • 2 yrs
  • Chevron Hassett
    • $50
    • 2 yrs
  • Cindy Devitt
    • $20
    • 2 yrs
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Organizer

Matthew Markland
Organizer
Fairfield, QLD

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