Putting trust in future
A trust founded by a Waikato farmer who harboured a lifelong wish to have had a better education is benefiting dozens of local students each year.
Seventeen years after it was established, the David Johnstone Charitable Trust, managed by Guardian Trust, has formed an annual pattern of generous scholarship distributions to graduating high school students beginning tertiary study in the region.
This year, 37 students have each received $5000 towards their studies, including Matamata College students Taylor Douglas and Maria Visser, among more than 180 secondary-school graduates to have benefited from David Johnstone’s generosity in the past five years.
The 2012 recipients include 25 young people enrolled in science or teaching degree programmes at the University of Waikato, and 12 embarking on any field of study at the Waikato Institute of Technology.
The trust is now worth $5.2 million and has distributed more than $1.5 million since 1995.
The students formally received their scholarships at a presentation at Waikato Stadium on November 7. The students and their families, school and tertiary representatives, and trustees of the David Johnstone Charitable Trust and staff of Guardian Trust were in attendance.
David Johnstone was a well-known farming identity in the Waikato. Many years of hard work – and trial and error – made him a success in his field, but he maintained an appreciation for the value of education.
His answer was to form a charitable trust in his name, with the objective of giving young people financial help to further their studies. Eligible students are those entering Waikato University (and pursuing a science or teaching degree) or Waikato Institute of Technology.
Speaking at the presentation Guardian Trust’s general manager of personal client services, Philip Morgan Rees, said the distributions highlight how enduring giving is possible when facilitated by a charitable trust.
‘‘Guardian Trust takes an active role as a trustee in managing the David Johnstone Trust, and the objective of our investment management approach is to manage the funds to provide regular distributions in support of the chosen causes,’’ he said.
As part of the administration of the David Johnstone Trust, nomination forms and criteria are sent to schools within the trust’s designated area in August each year.