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September 2021
It was the month of September – Skydive September. And although lockdown threatened to delay the skydive, one volunteer braved the skies, all in the name of GirlGuiding NZ.
NIKI SMITH IS ONE OF OUR VOLUNTEERS WHO RUNS A UNIT OF 15 GIRLS (INCLUDING HER DAUGHTER) AND IS A FIRST-TIME SKYDIVER BASED IN INGLEWOOD TARANAKI.
“Skydiving was never on my bucket list like most people; I have just a classic fear of jumping out of planes.
When the email came out to start with, I thought to myself, ‘that’s so cool, let’s do it’ and signed up for it that afternoon without even thinking about it. Then the donations started coming in and I realised that this was actually going to happen!
The morning of the skydive (luckily, I could jump at Level 2) had me a nervous wreck. However. There was beautiful weather, my best friend-slash-co-leader was there for support, and best of all, my mum decided that morning to skydive with me! The support was incredible, even though getting geared up the worst thoughts were going through my head (e.g. is the harness done up?!). When we were up in the sky, it started to feel surreal and before I knew it, I was saying goodbye to mum and jumping.
I was grinning the whole 60 seconds of free fall and the rest of the jump was spent admiring the incredible view of Taupo.
Becoming a unit leader was the best thing I have ever signed up for. We started off with 4 and have grown to 21 girls. We are always telling the girls to give things a go, so I figured I had to roll with that myself. They all made me cards in support and posted messages of encouragement on our unit Facebook page.
Everyone who donated made it so easy and I am so grateful to them; we hit the target in no time! I highly recommend this to anyone. The fundraising isn’t as hard as I thought it would be because people are more than happy to support it.
So, my advice to anyone thinking about taking the leap for GirlGuiding New Zealand: Don’t think about it. Just do it.”
Niki Smith, Brownie Leader – Inglewood
Click through to see the video of her amazing feat: https://taupotandemskydiving.zenfolio.com/p1029463076/hBE7C5CC9#hbe7c5cc9