Mike King's Gumboot Friday mental health fundraiser will return for a "second round" in November after the campaigner received massive online support.
The former comedian's Gumboot Friday programme aims to connect Kiwis with mental health support, but King has been struggling to get funding for it despite him saying it has thousands of registered counsellors ready to assist.
Earlier in July, King said he was "really disappointed" by the $943,000 raised during a Gumboot Friday appeal held in June. He said that due to the overwhelming demand for help, that money would be used in about three months.
King said at that time that he planned to host a second fundraising event in November if one of his videos received 50,000 shares, which he suggested would show the public was on board.
On Saturday, the Gumboot Friday Facebook page said it was coming back on Friday, November 5. The video has been shared at least 42,000 times on Facebook and has also been shared across on Instagram. Between the two sites alone, it has been viewed more than 1.3 million times.
"You did it NZ… you showed us you are behind our kids."
The Facebook status says the charity has a goal of $5 million and is calling for volunteers to assist.
"We get asked daily if you have to wait for November 5 to fundraise. The answer is NO! Our kids need support all year round, which means Gumboot Friday does too! November 5 is the date we want to see everyone wearing our gumboots, and when our 'Gumboot Friday at The Domain' event will be held, but we love seeing you all getting stuck into the trenches already!"
In recent months, King has been in a back-and-forth with the Ministry of Health over funding for his programme. He's also returned the Order of Merit honour he was awarded in 2019 for services to mental health awareness and suicide prevention after becoming frustrated by what he says is a lack of progress in the mental health sector.
On Friday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the door was open to King to apply for funding for Gumboot Friday, but that proper protocols needed to be followed.
"We've got really deeply committed people here in the ministry who are focused on exactly the same thing," he said. "The issue that has been covered in the media is about how that funding gets to the Gumboot Friday programme.
"All this new funding goes through a process of requesting proposals, a proper assessment of every proposal - not every one of which gets funded - and most importantly we need to thoroughly assess the evidence for efficacy and also for safety."
King was critical of that, saying on Friday that Dr Bloomfield had "questioned the qualifications/safety of GBF counsellors".
"He inferred that MOH were still waiting on the relevant information from me and my organisation. They already have it so I honestly don’t know what else we can do."
