Fighting fit in New Plymouth
Jake Rapira, head coach and founder of Box Office boxing, exemplifies what it means to turn your passion into a business with community impact at its heart. Upto 130 people per day pass through the doors of Box Office gym in New Plymouth; some to boxfit or regular boxing classes, some to "Counterpunch for Parkinson’s" or other specialist programmes.
“We run a class specifically designed to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease; we hear from participants that they have no symptoms for up to 8 hours after class. We work closely with people with dementia, spinal bifida and amputees, using boxing as a rehabilitation tool. We also have a women’s only class for mums, which is a free female only class where boxers can bring their babies or children with them.”
It’s easy to see why the community in New Plymouth have been getting involved with the variety of classes on offer and supporting the club’s community initiatives, such as; the annual food drive in June, where people can trade a food donation to the local foodbank for a free class. “We can only offer these classes now because we were able to move to a bigger space; I don’t think it will be long before we need to look at relocating to a bigger space again, because we can have 40+ people in one 6am class.”
TSB Community Trust has supported the club since 2010 with a number of grants; firstly, to address the need for a new boxing ring; then, with a three-year operational grant allowing the club to move to a bigger space, realising their vision of expanding their service to the community with a greater offering of classes.
The latest grant of $30,000 allowed the club to replace its old van with a newer, more reliable model to allow members to travel nationally for training and competitions. “We had a van which was donated to us by a local lady, but it had been used by another organisation previously and it was quite old. I remember trying to take the boxing team to Hamilton for training, but the van died by the time we got to Te Kuiti! Even on trips to Hawera I wasn’t confident that we would make it,” Jake explained.
“We’ve been working on trying to get a new van for about 4 years now. With our own fundraising efforts we raised around $25,000. TSB Community Trust have been a huge part of the success of the club so far, so I knew they would be the best people to approach for help with the last amount of money we needed to finally get our new van.”
The 45 members of the Youth Academy will undoubtedly benefit from the latest grant too. For this group of 8-14 year olds, the new van allows them to be picked up from local suburbs and more rural areas to ensure they can participate in classes. “I get emails from parents of our kids in the Youth Academy saying thank you for giving my child an outlet, they are doing heaps be?er at home and in school, they’re able to focus and they’re more confident.”
The support of TSB Community Trust is something that Jake is definitely grateful for: “If it wasn’t for them we never would have been able to move; if it wasn’t for them we never would have been able to get our first ring, which enabled us to hold our own competitions; if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have been able to get this new van, which allows us to consistently take our boxers to training camps and competitions across the country.”