Variety the Children’s Charity International Sunshine Coach Program continues to get the kids out into the sunshine with a total of 159 Sunshine Coaches presented around the world in 2010.

Tents are asked to provide the number of seats in each coach as well as the number of coach’s presented. The reason for this; different regions have different size coaches, ranging from 6 seat Sunshine Coaches to 29 seat Sunshine Coaches. When we collate the number of seats made available in the 159 Sunshine Coaches presented in 2010 it tells a powerful story about the work of Variety around the world

• 2335 new Variety Sunshine Coaches seats were made available every day (through the 159 Sunshine Coaches presented in 2010 alone) to provide sunshine to the lives of Special Needs Children

• If each of the 2010 presented Sunshine Coaches are used 5 times a week the number of seats available each week is 11675 .

• If we multiply the number of seats available each week over the period of one year it shows that 607,100 seats were made available for kids to travel in through these 159 SS Coaches

We continue to use a spread sheet to decide the 3 equal winners of the VI Sunshine Coach Awards from information from the VI Tent Reports. This formula introduced 3 years ago provides a transparent opportunity for all the Tents who are part of the Sunshine Coach Programme to be eligible for an award and is not based on numbers alone.

• Category #1. Largest growth in number of Coaches presented in current year.

• Category #2. Greatest number of Coaches presented in the past 4 years.

• Category #3. The Tent that demonstrates the most significant commitment to the programme taking into account the size and operational challenges of the Tent.

The following 15 Variety Tents have presented Sunshine Coaches during 2010.

• Tent 4 St Louis. 1 SS Coaches total 12 seats

• Tent 7 Buffalo & Western New York. 1 SS Coach total 15 seats

• Tent 15 Iowa. 10 SS Coaches total 106 seats

• Tent 17 Texas. 1 SS Coach total 18 seats

• Tent 36 Great Britain. 101 SS Coaches total 1414 seats

• Tent 39 Southern Nevada 1 SS Coach total 12 seats

• Tent 47 British Columbia. 4 SS Coaches total 69 seats

• Tent 52 Jersey 2 SS Coach total 32 seats

• Tent 56 New South Wales. 11 SS Coaches total 247 seats   (That’s US)

• Tent 68 New Zealand. 1 SS Coaches total 12 seats

• Tent74 Western Australia. 6 SS Coaches total 112 seats

• Tent 75 South Australia. 11 SS Coaches total 180 seats

• Tent 76 Queensland. 3 SS Coaches total 36 seats

• Tent 77 Victoria. 3 SS Coaches total 36 seats

• Tent 82 Tasmania 3 SS Coach total 32 seats

A total of $7,141,199.40 was invested internationally by the 15 Tents in the 2010 Sunshine Coach Program. Congratulations are in order to all Tents who have provided Sunshine Coaches for their special needs kids.

A special mention to Tent 52 Jersey who almost won the Category #3 Award A Huge Congratulations to Tent 36 who this year presented their 5000th Sunshine Coach as part of their 101 presented Sunshine Coaches for the year

The 3 Variety International Sunshine Coach Award Recipients for 2010

• Category #1 Tent 56 New South Wales

• Category #2 Tent 15 Iowa

• Category #3 Tent 82 Northern Territory

Please note these are equal awards not 1st 2nd 3rd

Jack Cannons AM Chairman Variety International Sunshine Coaches

NB: Tents are the Variety organisational area term for geographical areas.  It has it’s history in the entertainment/circus industry.