Opening the Loft: Meet the Winner of the MyCoke Pop-Up Party – Tracey Fawcett

Who would you invite if you won a MyCoke Pop-Up Party? For Tracey Fawcett it was an easy decision.

Tracey and her husband Stephen have always been passionate about helping the youth of Te Puke, and with the help of 4 others they set up The Vector Group Charitable Trust.

“Our little town doesn’t have much in the way of doing something creatively, or helping with building learning skills. There’s always the sports clubs. That’s always the sort of thing that gets promoted.” Tracey said.

They had planned to start up a youth trust to help local kids get involved in the community. Then Tracey’s daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

“Our dreams kind of went on hold.”

Now their daughter is a little older and her health has improved, Tracey, Stephen and the Vector Group are growing, and the vision for the Trust hasn’t changed.

“My passion is that I want to see youth empowered creatively, so they learn skills when they don’t even know they’re doing it. We see sustainability for the youth, building practical skills.”

“We’re doing things like opening a second-hand shop where the youth are going to learn to manage it, run it and volunteer, so they’ll be putting back into the community and it will hopefully self-fund.”

Due to their daughters diabetes diagnosis the Fawcett’s run a sugar free household. One of their preferred treats is no sugar drinks like Coke Zero.

So when Tracey entered the MyCoke competition she had plenty of barcodes to enter.

When Tracey Fawcett entered her barcodes in the MyCoke competition, the chance to win the Pop Up party caught her eye.

At first Tracey saw the opportunity to win $10,000.

“We’re a non-profit, and my husband and I, we’re not paid, we’re volunteers, and we don’t even know when we’ll get paid next.”

Then the chance to win a Pop-Up Party caught her eye. Tracey thought, “Well that makes real sense. Let’s win the Pop-Up Party.”

“We have a small youth committee that we are working with because we want the group to be youth led. We want to be in a relationship with them, asking what needs do we want to look at in the community. These kids have put their hands up and said they really want to be a part of this. So we are asking how do we empower them and help them engage to put those things in place?”

Coca-Cola Oceania were excited to provide a bar with a full range of Coke beverages, beach chairs, a fussball table, a DJ, food truck and more entertainment for everyone to enjoy.

Tracey thought the Pop-Up Party would be the perfect opportunity to say thank you to the youth committee for their work building the foundations of the trust. It was also a great way to celebrate the launch of their space, christened ‘The Loft”.

“And I won it. Oh my god, I wasn’t expecting that!”

It’s safe to say the Pop-Up launch party for The Loft was a success. Coca-Cola Oceania were excited to provide a bar with a full range of Coke beverages, beach chairs, a foosball table, a DJ, food truck and more entertainment for everyone to enjoy.

“It felt like Coca-Cola were right at the beginning of our journey. I really loved that.”

Coca-Cola was also pleased to provide the party attendees with party bags including a Coke branded cap, sunglasses and headphones.

“It felt like Coca-Cola were right at the beginning of our journey. I really loved that.” The Pop-Up party was a great platform for Tracey Fawcett to open her space to the youth of Te Puke.

The Pop-Up party was a great platform for Tracey to open her space to the youth of Te Puke, and Coca-Cola were there to celebrate the work that Tracey has been doing.

“It was so much fun. I just loved seeing them happy. It was so cool to see those kids connect, and get something really special. I loved it.”

“It was so cool to see those kids connect, and get something really special. I loved it.” Tracey Fawcett, winner of the MyCoke Pop Up Party said.

Tracey believes the Pop-Up Party was a great way to build really strong connections and is now looking forward to opening The Loft to the wider community.

As Tracey said, “What’s come out of it is that kids who didn’t know about the space are now putting their hand up and are really excited about being part of the journey.”

The Trust is now looking for more ways to encourage the youth of Te Puke to get involved in building the community together in Te Puke.

Tracey believes the PopUp Party was a great way to build really strong connections and is now looking forward to opening The Loft to the wider community.

To learn more visit vectorgroup.org.nz

This article originally featured on Coca-Cola Journey http://www.coca-colajourney.co.nz/stories/meet-the-winner-of-the-mycoke-pop-up-party By: Journey NZ Staff | 28/06/2017

Opening the Loft: Meet the Winner of the MyCoke Pop-Up Party

Opening the Loft: Meet the Winner of the MyCoke Pop-Up Party

COCA-COLA POP-UP AT YOUR PARTY
Major Prize Winner
Tracey – Te Puke