Gareth Owston-Doyle (25)

Where are you from?
I grew up in Mairangi West, between Puhoi and Orewa. About 5 years ago I moved into Auckland.

What do you do for a living?
I work for Fulton Hogan doing civil engineering. I’ve done that since I left school.

What activity are you involved with that makes the world a better place?
I’ve just walked the length of New Zealand to raise money and awareness for Fostering Kids New Zealand. It took me 175 days from start to finish, averaging about 25km a day.

It’s a hard foundation to fundraise for due to the sensitivity around the cases they deal with. They can’t really tell stories about the kids they help, because they need to protect the privacy of those children. So it’s really difficult for them to get their message out.

A lot of New Zealanders are aware of fostering, but they don’t know anything about the process that makes it happen. It’s very complicated. I think there are a lot of families out there that would love to foster a child, but they just never hear about how the system works, or about the positive impact that fostering has on kids’ lives.

This has been my first foray into any kind of charity work, so it’s been an eye-opener for me. During the walk I stayed with about 20 foster families, and met a whole lot more. I heard their stories and met the foster kids, which was awesome. It made the walk a lot more rewarding and worthwhile, because I got to see first-hand how fostering helps these kids. Every house I went into I could feel the love.

What effect has this activity had to date?
So far I’ve raised almost $14,000 via Givealittle. I’ve also had TV, radio and web interviews, which has been great to build awareness.

How could this activity be developed in order to benefit more people?
I’ll be talking about my trip at the Fostering Kids conference this year, which I’m pretty nervous about to be honest. And I’ll be doing some talks in schools as well.

I’ll definitely be doing more charity work in the future, because I think it’s very rewarding for both parties.

What do you love most about New Zealand?
The people. Everyone I met on the walk was awesome. They would all go the extra mile to make my life a bit easier – which was pretty cool to see.

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Photographer: Maxy