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About Chump Change
Why did you choose the name 'chump change' as your team name?
Our name Chump Change has a two-fold meaning. The first is that since we are trying to raise money for the NZBCF we want to encourage people to donate their chump change or gold coins/loose change to support our 12-week bodybuilding challenge. Chump change is money that can be easily disposed of. If everyone gave just a little bit of change to support the fight to combat breast cancer then we believe we could raise the $30k we have set as a fundraising target – hence our slogan “because a little change can change a chump.”
The second meaning of chump change is of course our desire to inspire ordinary people to do something extraordinary. There are a lot of people out there who at some point in life have been made to think that they are stupid, cheap, useless, or undeserving in life. The man whose story inspired chump change, Peter Haenga, for instance suffered a brutal attack that led to a brain injury. He was soon after diagnosed with cancer adding to his woes. He had also lost his mother to breast cancer and spiraled into a state of depression. Many people suffer from this illness after losing a loved one.
Chump change is about creating a new attitude in life. It’s about pulling yourself up when the cards are stacked against you. If your at a low ebb in life, exercise and getting the body moving is one of the best ways you can increase your energy levels and expel undesired feelings and negative emotions. No matter what is happening in your life, your body is something that you can always control – self-determination of your body can also have a flow on effect to other parts of one’s life. It’s about generating positive energy and being present – for your family, your career and your destiny what ever that may be. It’s about expelling that little voice, that chump, at the back of your mind that tells you, you can’t be who you want to be.
Why did you choose bodybuilding as your cause to raise awareness for breast cancer over other sports?
Bodybuilding is one of the most rigorous sports around and I believe it’s going to make a come back big time worldwide. There is a long held perception that bodybuilding is purely about becoming big which doesn’t really necessarily appeal to a lot of women but that is one of the long held myths about the sport. There are a lot of misconceptions about the sport brought on by steroid abuse and other drug abuse which shadow the fact that the large majority of classes in bodybuilding competitions i.e. Shape, Figure and Fitness are largely about fat loss. Chump change recognizes this and our women competitors are aware that actually if your goal is purely about weight loss then this is the perfect sport to become involved in – as a large part of succeeding in this sport requires a focus on losing body fat and maintaining a good nutritious diet.
Bodybuilding also requires both physical and mental strength – these are the building blocks of creating success in life. It requires endurance – consistency, dedication and hard work. These are values which many people in this world have never had a vehicle to install in themselves. This is one of the reasons why people fail to achieve their goals. It’s also a way of thinking that is behind the current global obesity epidemic.
The reason why we choose bodybuilding over other sports to fundraise for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation and why we think it is appropriate is that to be a serious competitor in bodybuilding and to win NABBA competitions requires a lot of suffering – and it’s a physical, emotional and mental suffering that is akin in many ways to the kind of hardship that breast cancer victims have to endure. Bodybuilders more than other athletes can empathize with the struggle to control one’s body – something all cancer victims pretty much lose control of. So it’s the perfect sport to choose to raise awareness of breast cancer.
Who are the chump change team and do you all know someone affected by cancer?
We have a team of seven bodybuilders: Trudz Houkamau (Fitness/Physique), Andy Chapman (Physique), Chrissy Bevan (Figure/Fitness - novice), Peter Haenga (Physique), Steve Norris (Athletic), Jo Lewis (Physique – novice) and myself, Mere Takoko (Figure – novice).
We all are aware of someone affected by cancer and we all have our own individual story. The fact is that cancer is epidemic in New Zealand so everyone has a mom, sister, aunty, grandma or cousin who has the illness. New Zealand has one of the highest breast cancer rates in the country. One in ten women will develop breast cancer so it’s actually a really significant issues impacting our society.
When I first started to train and was exposed to the idea of bodybuilding breast cancer was the furthest thing from my mind. But having begun the journey with Peter Haenga, who is my relative, and whose mom I knew as a child, we just put two and two together and breathed life into chump change. It’s a spiritual journey as much as it is a journey of recovery and wellness. Chump change is really an expression of that energy which is about caring for your whanau and recognizing that sometimes we have to be a voice for something greater than ourselves.
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What do you hope to achieve through your team in terms of raising awareness - in terms of dollar value and profile.
This is a journey we are taking day by day. We have set an ambitious target of NZ$30k but we can only do that with numbers and the support of NABBA, NZBCF and of course the public. We have had a lot of media interest to date and Peter and I will be leading a lot of advocacy work to bring consciousness to the public about breast cancer. |
If we can convince just a handful of men or women to go out and be screened with an MRI in addition to mammograms and they discover they have cancer before its too late to treat then that is the best outcome we could possibly achieve. That more than the $30k donation we hope to pledge to the NZBCF will make our hard work worthwhile.
We are contributing to this effort voluntarily – and offering our skills to make it a success. As Peter says, he is the brawn and I am the brain so we complement each other in many ways. He’s been through his own chump change challenge having lost over 40kgs on his
bodybuilding journey so he is a real inspiration and a real success story for many people in a similar situation.
What have you been doing to raise $$ and how can people help?
We aim to raise $30k by Pink Ribbon Day – October 14th so we have set up a website where individuals can make donations by credit card. We are also encouraging the general public to do a 12 week chump change challenge but this will not commence until May 5th.
Our game plan is to attend the Manawatu NABBA Championships in Palmerston North on May 19th where NABBA has been kind enough to give us a slot to do a special performance to promote our cause to other body builders so they get involved. NABBA have also made an offer for us to hold a “Pink Breakfast” fundraiser in Palmerston North on May 20th so we are currently trying to find a corporate sponsor to help us out with that event.
We have had five businesses so far who have contributed body building related products which we are beginning to auction off on our trade me account. But our main focus for fundraising will be to find a major corporate sponsor to help fund our team costs and raise our target of $30k - a significant sum for any non-profit group. Peter and I are meeting with Richie Gaspari next weekend so we have a lot of self-belief that even the top man of the body building supplement world might be interested in sponsoring us.
We are also trying to find businesses who can help us with travel, uniforms, competition outfits and accommodation costs to help our team compete in Palmerston North and Whakatane.
Mere Takoko
March 2012
To help Chump Change with their Fundraising events visit their site www.chumpchange.co.nz
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