Despite recent hard times, the Te Anau community is pulling together with a charity concert on 10th May, to raise much needed funds for Hospice Southland.

In a combined effort, the town’s three service clubs, Te Anau Lions, Fiordland Rotary and Te Anau Kepler Lions, have pooled their resources to produce the fundraising concert.

Headlining the evening will be Southland’s own internationally recognised singer, Suzanne Prentice with local Te Anau ukulele band, From the Top, stepping up to open the first half of the concert.

Internationally known with hits such as ‘When I Dream’, ‘One Day at a Time’ and ‘Funny Face’ and as an inductee of the Australian Country Music Hands of Fame, Prentice was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to music in 1994.

While still performing professionally on regular basis she also donates a lot of her time to charitable entities.

More recently she has been involved in local politics and community projects including being a member of the Invercargill Licensing Trust and Foundation and the Otago/Southland Rescue Helicopter Trust.

Prentice, as the events coordinator for Hospice Southland’s funding arm, has a vested interest in making sure the vital care facility reaches its funding targets.

“The work of Hospice Southland, which covers Southland and Wakatipu Basin, has never been more needed than now with increasing numbers of patients needing the palliative care and respite offered. Hospice Southland gets about 42% of its funding from the government and it’s clearly not enough and the organisation needs to raise a further four million dollars annually to operate effectively”.

Prentice said, “I am very excited to perform in Te Anau and very happy to be part of this fundraising effort”.

A spokesman for the combined service clubs, Trevor Lyall, said they were extremely fortunate to have an entertainer of Ms Prentice’s standing and he hoped the community would jump at the chance to hear the renown singer in their own town.

“Not only do you get a great concert with an international entertainer, but you get to support such a worthwhile cause which is constantly in demand”.

“Practically every aspect of putting on this concert has been donated, from the performers and the venue to a large part of the cost of the sound and lighting, and we expect to be able donate all the money from the concert."

"Te Anau’s businesses have again stepped up and provided accommodation and meals, have heavily discounted costs that cannot be avoided while others have offered to cover any shortfall so that the full cost of each ticket will end up in Hospice coffers”.

The concert is at the RealNZ Fiordland Community Events Centre on Friday May 10 and is being promoted as ‘An Evening with Suzanne and Friends’.

Te Anau band 'From the Top. Photo: Supplied

Ms Prentice will be supported in the first half of the evening with local ukulele band ‘From the Top’.

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