A charitable dinner
On Friday 18 October, The Tannery and Cassels Brewery hosted a black tie evening of legance to support the Pathway Trust. To help ensure the success of the recent dinner, Alasdair Cassels provided his beautiful venue, The Tannery, at no charge and purchased a table of ten for the dinner to provide direct financial support.
With Chris Bond as MC, Phil McGoldrick as auctioneer and Duncan Garner as guest speaker, the night was filled with friends and the knowledge that we were supporting a worthy cause. Pathway Trust is a not-for-profit that has been enabling fresh starts for people in the Canterbury region for over 20 years.
Throughout the past two decades, the social services and work of the trust has diversified and today it is most recognised for its prison reintegration services, journeying alongside men at Christchurch Men’s Prison to create possibilities for a fresh start. A dedicated team of social workers are embedded in programmes delivered both within the prison system and out in the community, providing relational education, employment preparation, literacy and numeracy education, and practical trade-based skills development.
Notably, independent research has reported that released men who participated in Pathway’s reintegration programme were 43 percent less likely to return to prison after 12 months of release.
The trust continues to strive towards unlocking the potential and creating possibilities for people who are looking for a fresh start and ready to make a change. Every year Pathway supports more than 100 people on their own journey, providing the tools and resources to enable a safe, happy, positive and healthy life.
“Our biennial major fundraising event is always a wonderful evening for us to reflect on how far the organisation has come, but more-so recognise the impact our team continues to make on the lives of so many people,” founding member and CEO of Pathway Charitable Group Murray Kennedy says.
“We simply couldn’t do this work without the funding and support we receive. A huge thanks to everyone who made our special event such a great success.”
The Cassels table at which I was a guest consisted of Nick Inkster from OGB, Chris and Helen Ashton from Platinum Homes, Hardeep and Sonia Singh from Super Liquor, Jeremy and Emma Stevens from Aikmans, Andy Gutschlag from Fresh Choice Merivale and Michael Bayly from Cassels, all attending as guests for Alasdair Cassels.
Alasdair Cassels’ support for Pathways reflects the values he was raised with as part of a strong Presbyterian household. His father had studied to be a minister and instilled in his children a sense of service to others and a belief in the power of redemption. Alasdair puts those beliefs into practice, with the successful businessman lending his support to Pathways, an organisation that assists in the journey to redemption for those who have served their sentence and need assistance to rejoin the community.
