A Porirua man has won the TradeMe auction to meet Elton John, with his bid of $11,050 going to the NZ AIDS Foundation. Daniell McGruddy of Porirua was the winning bidder in the online charity auction for the ultimate Elton John experience for two people - attendance at the official concert sound check, the chance to meet Elton in person, dinner and a luxury suite at the Hotel InterContinental Wellington, the opportunity to watch his show in Wellington on 6 December from the VIP suite, premium car transfers, signed artist merchandise plus much more. The charity auction received an overwhelming response, 122 bids were received in total with more than 37,663 visitors to the page. "Thank you to all the New Zealanders who have generously donated to the AIDS foundation. The $11,050 raised will go towards continued assistance for sufferers. I look forward to my visit in December and hope to put on a great show for my Kiwi friends,” says Elton John. Larry Jenkins, Fundraiser and Events Co-ordinator for the NZAF says half the money raised will go towards HIV prevention education and the other half for supporting those living with HIV. "What a wonderful experience it has been for us to work with Visa Entertainments, Capital C Concerts and Ticketek and to be the recipients of the scheme they devised for our benefit,” says Jenkins. “Thanks to Phil Sprey and all others who made this happen. And of course, thanks to Elton for being Elton." One of the highlights of the Elton John TradeMe auction was the ‘Question and Answer' section at the bottom of the auction page. Questions such as ‘Does Elton know all about this yet?', ‘Will Elton bust out a mean freestyle with the winner?', and ‘Do you get your money back if he is in a bad mood?' were all answered in a professional manner by the auction seller. Arguably the most creative question was this one: “Would a woman pregnant with twins, and her husband, be counted as two persons or four persons? And would it be possible to take a dog instead of a person for the 2nd person? I think Elton would like animals… especially after singing the Lion King.” Ref: NZAF, Visa, GayNZ.com (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 22nd November 2006 - 12:00pm