A meeting considered liquidating the Wairarapa Free Budget Advisory Service but it survived. PHOTO/FILE
PAM GRAHAM
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Wairarapa Free Budget Advisory Service was on Wednesday to make a bid for $20,000 of funding from Masterton District Council’s community and well-being fund.
It is one of 48 applications requesting a total of $377,889, nearly double the $200,000 available.
Representatives of 32 organisations will speak to their applications at an extraordinary Community Well-being Committee meeting. Applicants will be advised of decisions after a full council meeting on June 26.
Grant Howard from Wairarapa Free Budget Advisory Service, which nearly collapsed earlier this year, is first up.
He’s says the application is “very critical” for the organisation.
The $20,000 he is seeking is to “assist with the manager’s personnel costs to continue with support and advice to the 144 clients receiving our services”.
Another organisation with a clouded future that’s been in the news is Come Sew With Me, run by Heather Bannister, who will speak to the committee at 4.30pm.
She pays rent for the council-owned Rose Cottage in Queen Elizabeth Park and is applying for money from council to pay six months of that rent. If her grant application is successful, some of the money will be used for operating expenses to continue with the five-days-a-week free service to the public and “crafternoon” on the first Saturday of every month. Masterton Rotary are supporting the group’s move to become a
Charitable Trust.
The SPCA is another high-profile charity with a bid for $15,000, as is Life Flight Trust, which is seeking $5000.
Former Masterton Mayor Bob Francis is fronting two grant applications, one for $8000 for Digital Seniors, and another for $20,000 for the Wairarapa Healthy Homes Committee. He is involved in the initiative to insulate 150 homes in the 2019/20 year. It has money from EECA and applications in to Trust House and Eastern and Central Community Trust and other Wairarapa councils.
Beverley Jack, representing Wairarapa Community Centre, is seeking funding of $5000 to assist towards the Community Kitchen personnel costs, kitchen hire and pantry staples to cook weekly economical “heat and eat” meals from donated ingredients for those in need.
She is also seeking $15,000 towards personnel and operating expenses for Wairarapa Community Centre, which provides low-cost, affordable community services and training.
In arguing for $10,000, Masterton Foodbank will reiterate that it has already run out of donated food from the annual appeal late last year and has to buy food for the rest of the year. Last year 3495 parcels were distributed, an increase of 11.5 per cent from the previous year and this provided food to 12,568 people, of whom more than half were children.
Leaders of the suburbs in eastern Masterton will also make a case for grants.
Eastside Community Group is seeking funding of $7100 for the cost of printing newsletters, providing welcome packs, after school programmes, developing a waste management strategy, and providing leadership and development training for community group members and volunteers for Masterton East.
Alan Maxwell from Wairarapa Whanau Trust is seeking $10,000 for a youth worker at Makoura College for 10 hours a week and 15 hours a week in the community.
And $6000 is being sought to support the ongoing operations of Te Awhina Youth Group.
Sandy Ryan, from Lansdowne Residents Association Incorporated, is seeking funding of $7000.
Other applicants are SeniorNet, Autism Wairarapa Charitable Trust, People First NZ Inc and House of Science Wairarapa Charitable Trust.
The arts are represented by bids from New Zealand Pacific Studio Inc, the Masterton District Brass Band and King Street Artworks Inc. Also, He Kahui is seeking funding for kapa haka groups for regional competitions in July 2019 and February 2020.
Councillor Frazer Mailman is involved in a bid from the Wairarapa Youth Charitable Trust for $10,000 for operating costs to deliver the “Passport to Success” programme through the medium of boxing, providing exercise, self-confidence, respect and discipline.
The application says the academy membership has increased from small numbers to nearly 100 and it is working, with seven schools, Te Hauora and Youth Justice. It would like to be in a position to purchase the building at the end of the year to be sustainable within three years.
