Heart Stopper Challenge - Auckland

Ready...Set...FREEZE!

Every year 450 open heart surgeries are performed on Kiwi children.  During the surgery a child's chest cavity is cooled down in an icy slush to slow their heart rate.

As part of the Heart Children week Les Mills along with Heart Children NZ and 91.8 More FM organized an event called the "Heart Stopper Challenge". The Heart Stopper Challenge is an event where teams of 4-6 people take the plunge into an icy pool for five minutes. Contestants are encouraged to come in fancy dress and have a laugh while raising money for Kiwi kids with heart defects in the community.

Six employees from Benefitz decided they were crazy enough to take on the challenge. With a great theme in mind they set upon using the resources at work to create their award winning costumes. That's right, not only did they manage to endure the freezing water in the challenge but they also managed to take out the best costume award as well. The costumes were printed on PVC by the Mighty HP Scitex XP5300 grand format printer.

The event itself was a huge success. The Auckland teams collectively managed to raise over $50,000 for Heart Children New Zealand. Pictures on the right show the Benefitz staff in action.

The team consisted of Craig Monk, Aaron Morrison, David Cooper, Amy Burgess, Stuart Fausett and Ewen Morgan. The Benefitz team are already thinking of how they can better themselves for next years challenge.