Ten members of the Stevens Point Wizards Jump Rope Demonstration team are back home, recovering from a demanding two-week performing trip to New Zealand.
During their visit, the team staged 28 shows for about 10,000 people - mostly elementary school aged students, along with teachers and parents.
The Wizards, whose sponsors are the American Heart Association and the Stevens Point School District, assisted the New Zealand Heart Foundation in increasing awareness and support for its Jump Rope for Heart program, and encouraging young people to live heart-healthy lifestyles that include regular exercise.
Wizards team members who toured New Zealand included Megan, Ben and Emily Pliska, Tracy, Jill and Phil Kosloski, Jenny Jackson, Jodi Przekurat, Brooke Roth and Kendall Trzinski. Many have been part of the team for about 15 years.
Since the missions of both the American and New Zealand Heart organizations do not include funding for such trips, the Wizards' team coach, Martha Schuh, sought and received about $16,000 in financial support from the Stevens Point community. The funds covered airfare expenses for the team members. Schuh, her husband, Jim and Peggy Kosloski, mother of three team members, paid their own expenses. Local families hosted the team members at each stop.
Highlights of the tour included a special performance for the United States Embassy staff in Wellington, and an official Maori welcoming ceremony in Christchurch.
The Maori are New Zealand's native people, and one tribe invited the Wizards to a Marae or Maori complex, where they received a welcome and learned about Maori culture and customs, including touching noses as a greeting. The Wizards provided the Maori representatives with gifts, including an afghan depicting some of the historical sites of Portage County.
Acting U. S. Ambassador Phil Wall welcomed the team to the American embassy, and presented team members with certificates. He even shed his suit coat jacket to try his skills at rope skipping.
The Wizards also met a real Wizard - the Wizard of Christchurch, an eccentric on the public payroll. During warm weather (it's now winter in New Zealand), the Wizard shows up daily at 1 p.m. in Cathedral Square in downtown Christchurch to sound off on anything that interests him.
In naming him Wizard of Christchurch in 1990, the prime minister assigned him duties that include protecting the government, blessing new enterprises, casting out evil spirits, upsetting fanatics, cheering up the population and attracting tourists. He's not hard to pick out - the Wizard, whose real name is Ian Channell - wears a two-foot tall pointed and brimmed black hat that matches his gown.
He accepted an invitation to one jump rope performance, where he demonstrated his rope skipping skills. Several New Zealand cricket and basketball stars attended various other Wizards' shows.
Television network TV Two videotaped a Wizards' performance in Auckland for inclusion in a children's program - "What Now?" - this past Sunday morning, and two other networks - TV One and TV Three - videotaped parts of other Wizards' performances for their regular network nightly news programs.
In addition, the visit generated national and regional newspaper coverage throughout the country.
The tour began in Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand's South Island. The team also performed in Dunedin, Timaru and Blenheim, before heading for the North Island. There, performances took place in Wellington, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Hastings, Napier, Hamilton and Auckland, the country's largest city.
Tranz Rail provided the jumpers with complimentary rail and ferry transportation from Christchurch to Wellington. The New Zealand Heart Foundation enlisted other transportation support from SPC Cool Fruits, which produces a fruit cocktail dessert.
Schuh said that the trip would never have been possible without the generous financial support of the Stevens Point community. She termed the New Zealand visit "the trip of a lifetime" for the team members, who received warm welcomes at each appearance. Team members invited Kiwi children and teachers to demonstrate their rope-skipping skills at the shows.
Flying time between the Central Wisconsin Airport and Auckland is normally about 25 hours. But the return trip took 33 hours because of a flight delay in Auckland.