Christmas comes early

Over the past month we have interviewed many talented college students and awarded five Trust Porirua scholarships to young people heading off to tertiary education.

The standard of scholarship applications was high and left us impressed with the talent and vision of our young leaders.

We are also in the process of selecting 10 Trust Porirua scholarship recipients from Whitireia Polytechnic.

At the Mana Community Grants Foundation we were pleased to award about $250,000 to 37 organisations in our November grants round.

There are some terrific initiatives happening around Porirua City, and some passionate community groups deserving of funding – in this grants round we supported sports clubs, welfare agencies, cultural groups and education initiatives.

If you have a community group needing extra funds, check out our website or drop into our offices at Bridgepoint in Mana. The next grants round closes on February 27.

Our vision is for these funds to grow, so we have more to award back into the community. We aim to do this through wise investments, careful asset management and enlarging our venue base.

We must stress, however, that more venues doesn’t mean more gaming machines in Porirua City.

What it does mean is that we can ensure funds which come from this community return directly to it. We see that as very important.

To ensure we meet Department of Internal Affairs legislative requirements, 2015 may be a time of structural change for the trust.

We extend our thanks to Kapi-Mana News for its ongoing support and its coverage of the Porirua Sports Awards and look forward to working with the newspaper in celebrating our sports achievements in 2015.

Check out our website at poriruacommunitytrust.org.nz and follow us on Facebook (‘‘Porirua Community Trust’’) for the latest news.

Have a happy and healthy Christmas. We will be working hard to ensure 2015 is a prosperous year for our great little city in its 50th anniversary year.

Ia manuia le Kerisimasi ma le Tausaga Fou.

Henry Smith, Litea Ah Hoi, Tim Sheppard, Sarah Dow, Eleanor Cater and John Burke, Porirua Community Trust (encompassing the charities of Mana Community Grants Foundation and Trust Porirua).