It was interesting to meet some of the other award winners all sorts of businesses were represented, from hair salons and beauticians to a Chinese restaurant and a team who convert Landrovers. ![]() Photographs were taken, drinks were poured and the option of a video acceptance speech was also offered – which I declined. The South West England award winners were all invited to a celebration event in Highbullen Hotel Golf & Country Club. It’s extra rewarding to know the hard work and positivity is paying off and I hope this achievement brings more success‘. ‘ The judges were impressed with your personal touch, community feel and passion for what you do. To learn more about finding a Big Buddy for your boy click here.The news came to me by email earlier this year: To find out more about becoming a Big Buddy click here. To check out the incredible experiences available from Chuffed Gifts click here. Would you recommend others to become Big Buddies if they were keen?Ībsolutely, being a big buddy is an opportunity to change someone’s life, and I fully intend to become a big buddy once I am in a position to do so! Again, this is something you don’t really consider the benefit of until you reflect & realise just how important it has been!Ĥ. Having someone to offer that advice through personal life, business/career decisions, buying a home etc. Over the years the tennis stopped (when I started winning I think), but we continued to catch up for coffee & rounds of golf regularly (they’ll stop soon when I start winning), and even now at 28, John & I are great mates & catch up regularly. The impact of having a positive role model through those teenage years is hard to quantify, but in hindsight, I struggle to picture myself being the man I am today without that influence. Over the following years, my Big Buddy John & I played countless games of tennis & rounds of golf and would regularly go to sports matches together. I remember being very sceptical at first, being 13 & stubborn, I didn’t really understand why I needed a Big Buddy. What memories do you have of being a Little Buddy and how did it benefit you? We started with around 30 North Island partner businesses when we launched our first website in 2020 and are now at nearly 200 partner businesses all over the country!ģ. With almost ten years of experience in tourism, I was well connected with the operators of many tourism businesses around NZ, so when we were developing Chuffed Gifts, I jumped in a campervan and drove the North Island meeting with those businesses & convincing them to come on board as a partner. Rather than selling a voucher for an individual experience, we came up with a unique concept that allows the buyer to choose the package & price, and the recipient to then have their choice from hundreds of amazing experiences across NZ. The main idea behind Chuffed is to get people gifting more experiences & less ‘ stuff’, in turn supporting the struggling tourism industry, opening Kiwi eyes to the world-class tourism experiences on their doorstep, and reducing the amount of waste associated with gifting ‘stuff’. We started working on Chuffed Gifts post-covid in May 2020, when myself and two other tourism workers found ourselves scratching our heads having been made redundant due to the closure of our international borders for the foreseeable future. ![]() Can you tell me a little about your business? Alex talks about his business and what being a Little Buddy has meant to him.ġ. He kindly helped us out with prizes for our first Big Buddy Online Quiz hosted by new ambassadors Roman Travers and Jason Gunn. We recently spoke with Alex Howard who jointly founded Chuffed Gifts two years ago after being made redundant during Covid. It’s always nice to hear from our former Little Buddies about how life has turned out for them.
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