South of the South Area School sounds like one school. It's actually seven.

Out here, a school like Maniototo Area School doesn't have enough kids to field its own sports teams but is part of the wider Area Schools network. So, students from Maniototo, Twizel, Waiau, The Catlins, Roxburgh, Lawrence and Arowhenua team up as one side, spanning over 350km between them.

They're not the only ones doing this. Regional school sports collegiates like this exist all over New Zealand. Earlier this year, several of them travelled to Whangarei to compete against each other in rugby, netball, tennis and kī-o-rahi. Next year, they'll travel to Rangiora.

For the kids, it's about more than the score at the end of the weekend. When your whole class is only about 10 people, the sports programme is often where friendships actually get made. After five years of tournaments together, a lot of those friendships turn into flatmates at university.

We caught up with Nikki, Maniototo School's deputy principal, along with Michelle and Geraldine, to present the prize. The Area School’s plan for the $3000 is simple: help replenish the sports team kit, so more kids can turn up looking and feeling like one unit at tournament. As it's a self-funded programme, the win was more than a nice surprise. It was a welcome boost for the sports collegiate.

We presented the $3000 prize alongside Anne and Richard from Kea Printwear, who placed the winning order on June 3rd for XT Hoodies in Navy/Gold. Anne first started in apparel while printing a school's yearbooks well over ten years ago. The school hadn't organised their class leavers hoodies, so Anne got their apparel sorted. Apparel has been part of their business ever since.

Teams like this already exist across the country. It's the hoodies that pull them together as a unit, and that's what our 60th anniversary promotion is about.