Neil Copeland and Friends Fundraiser

Maplewood and the Madill–Barham–Copeland family combo. A fundraiser for the New Zealand Under 19 Handball Team's trip to play in the 2023 world championships in Croatia in August.

At the Oceania Handball Tournament in Rarotonga in December, the New Zealand under 18 team qualified to compete in the world finals in Croatia in August as the under 19 team. One of the team members is John Barham of Dunedin, who has a strong family connection to the Dunedin Folk Club, being the grandson both of Jenny Madill, and of Neil and Sandra Copeland. One thing the team needs is financial support, as handball doesn't draw the public funding available to more high-profile sports.

So, when Neil was recently offered a night at the club, he opted to make it a fundraiser to help get John and his mates (two of them also from Dunedin) over to Europe. Various highly musical members of the Madill, Barham and Copeland families will be performing, as well as John Dodd, who was a teacher at Logan Park High School, where John Barham is currently a student.As luck would have it, the night Neil picked was also the night our own country band Maplewood requested to do a six-tune bracket in preparation for the Golden Guitar Awards the following weekend in Gore. Maplewood draw inspiration from old time American string bands. The music is lively, tuneful and energetic, occasionally borrowing from bluegrass or the Celtic tradition. Maplewood are Monica Barkman (fiddle, guitar,bass), Holly Williams (fiddle), Robbie Stevens (banjo, mandolin, guitar) and Richard Dingwall (guitar, mandolin). Everybody sings a bit.