12 scholarship recipients named for personal mentoring and fiscal support included rising talent from Grey Lynn, Zaaliyah Kalaihi-Fulu.
Tania Dalton Foundation, created in honour of the sporting legend, last month named the second-year intake of deserving recipients for its Scholarship Programme.
The foundation exists to inspire young people to be the best they can be through sport by coordinating a range of programmes aimed at making a positive and measurable impact.
The main initiative for the foundation, launched in March last year, is the Scholarship Programme which honours Tania’s passion for supporting young women in sport.
Founder and husband, Duane Dalton, says the programme supports talented young sportswomen from all kinds of circumstances or those who will benefit from the unique and valuable support the foundation can provide.
“The programme wraps a pastoral blanket around these incredible young women, so that they can make the right decisions now for their future. They have such great potential, and these really are the crucial years to ensure they make the most of that.
“Following Tania’s footsteps, we’re encouraging these girls to see themselves as future role models and leaders in their communities, finding ways to work alongside and inspire them to realise their ultimate dreams. And we’ve had great success in our first year, with two of our original scholarship recipients making the selections for the Black Ferns Sevens development squad.”
Duane says that there’s a huge engine of support behind the foundation – namely with some of Tania’s closest friends and former team mates. But there’s one key driver that has a major advisory role and that is their brave daughter, Tayla Dalton.
“Tayla has really played a huge role in developing the offering of these programmes and been really involved in our workshop sessions. We go through so many processes with different mentors, including dream mapping, personality assessments, career advisories and reputation management. Being of the same age as a number of these young scholarship recipients, she knows the best way to inspire and influence the group.
“It fills me with great pride seeing Tay stand in front of her peers and share the vision of her incredible mother, our T. Tania’s legacy lives on every day through three beautiful children, and it’s a constant reminder that we’re doing right by her and all that she aspired to achieve,” says Duane.
Looking to the year ahead, Duane sees incredible promise in the next wave of recipients and is looking forward to getting underway with the workshops and programme.