Back to Blog

A game-changer

When Melissa and Richard McBride finally found True Colours Children’s Health Trust, they felt an enormous weight lifted. Their son Oliver was diagnosed with epilepsy at three and, Melissa says, finding True Colours was a game-changer.“After a couple of years of trying to navigate Oliver’s condition ourselves, and not knowing what we didn’t know, we were put in touch with True Colours. It was just amazing – suddenly having someone who was on our team.”Melissa McBride...

A place of opportunity

Putaruru charity Transform Aotearoa would not exist if Ian Elliott, the late Trinity Lands chairman, had not connected with local prison officer of 30 years, Lamen Hohaia.Together, they launched Transform Aotearoa to help Putaruru families affected by imprisonment. The charity helps people who have been in prison, and their families, find purpose and stability as they move forward.Eight years later, Lamen is still at Transform. He leads the organisation’s men’s programmes and says:“It's al...

Serving the community

A new emergency vehicle started operation in Tīrau in August 2022, ready to serve the surrounding community with everything from fires to crashes to drownings.Brett Fleming, Trinity Lands’ GM Sustainability, says the emergency response vehicle is an essential addition to the Tīrau Fire Brigade fleet.Trinity Lands donated $60,000 to purchase the vehicle, while $70,000 of additional community fundraising provided the cabinet on the back of the truck and specialised rescue and medical equipment...

Feeding hungry young minds

At 5am every school day, the first workers start arriving at The Daily Charitable Trust’s commercial kitchen in Te Puke.With hair nets, gloves, and aprons on, they set out decks of 16 pieces of bread, add butter, cheese, ham, lettuce, and another slice of bread, and then cut each sandwich into triangles. They do this over and over, working fast and with a focus on meeting the needs of their community. More workers arrive throughout the morning until there is a loud, laughing group of around 18...

Te Puke's state of the art ambulance

Te Puke is the home base for a brand new, state-of-the-art ambulance which will serve the ill and injured across the Western Bay of Plenty.Trinity Lands donated the $218,000 Mercedes Sprinter to St John at a ceremony in Te Puke on September 1, 2020. The vehicle is kitted out with the latest lifesaving equipment and offers a safe and comfortable work environment for paramedics....

Restoring Pōkaiwhenua stream

Trinity Lands has helped set up a trust to support the environmental health of the Pōkaiwhenua Stream.The stream is a 56km long tributary of the Waikato River. It starts near Tokoroa and meets the Waikato River near Maungatautari. Keen cyclists will know the spot where the stream meets the river as the starting point of the popular Waikato River Trail....

Ian Elliott Memorial Scholarship 2020 Winner: Victoria Trayner

Ngāi Tahu dairy farmer Victoria Trayner is the inaugural recipient of the Ian Elliott Memorial Scholarship. A $7,500 grant from Trinity Lands, the “Farming for Good” company Ian led for many years, will pay Victoria’s fees to attend the Fonterra Governance Programme in 2020.The day after her third child was born, Victoria Trayner wrote her application for the hotly-contested Fonterra Governance Programme.Not only was she accepted on to the course; she was also chosen as the inaugural...

Donation puts South Waikato Menzshed back on track following tool theft

Weeks after thieves stole close to $4000 worth of brand-new tools from the Tokoroa branch of the charity before it could even officially open, the shed has received a $5000 donation from New Zealand agriculture and horticulture business Trinity Lands Limited to replace them.Chairman Graeme Douglas said although the theft came as a significant blow, after preparing for months to get the shed up and running, the donation now means they can get back on track.SOURCE: Stuff.co.nz ...

New vehicle for Maketu Medical Response

After years of responding to medical emergencies in the rural communities east of Te Puke using vans, trucks, and second-hand ambulances, the Maketu Fire Service now has a brand-new, purpose-built, fully kitted-out medical response vehicle.Trinity Lands donated $92,500 to the total $125,000 cost of the vehicle, which looks and operates like an ambulance but isn’t technically an ambulance because it is manned by volunteer firefighters....

Live for more – giving hope

Before Jared Dixon found surfing, he was a gang member with six years’ of prison behind him. The constants in his life were drugs, alcohol, partying, crime, and violence. About three years ago, Jared was referred to a Tauranga surf therapy programme called Live For More. “To be able to touch water for the first time in years was really cleansing for me. They gave me hope. They told me, you can get through it. You have potential.”Jared now works as the programme’s youth mentor; helpi...

A healthy future for all

Retired dentist Sue Cole heads the Trinity Koha Dental Clinic, which runs under the umbrella of YWAM (Youth with a Mission) Ships Aotearoa. The clinic consists of a container, a caravan, and a group of volunteers who move between poorer communities offering free dental care. Sue has three volunteer dentists on deck today, working at pace out of a caravan in a Tauranga carpark....

Reviving education with a new fleet of vans

Students at a Tauranga alternative education programme now have two brand-new vans, donated by Trinity Lands.ImpacTauranga supports young people forced out of, or who have chosen to leave mainstream education at Tauranga Girls’, Tauranga Boys’ or Otumoetai colleges. The students attend ImpactTauranga’s education programme Tauranga Youth Academy, where they are supported to set and chase goals, form healthy routines, study towards NCEA, access specialist social worker support and then trans...

Supporting young science minds

House of Science is a programme which supplies schools with ready-made science kits to ignite a love of science in young minds. It is credited with making science fun for a generation of Kiwi kids who will have opportunities for careers in related areas such as engineering, innovation and product development. Trinity Lands has funded the establishment of a South Waikato branch of the not-for-profit organisation, and committed to keeping it going for three years....

Helping Halo feed our neighbours

Every morning, Halo Trust sets out in a small refrigerated van to distribute food to hungry people across Tokoroa. Marina Pullen and her team of volunteers take kai donated by Countdown, and give it to children, the elderly, and families. Trinity Lands is proud to support Marina’s relentless drive to make a difference in our community....

$100,000 Boost for Rural Wellbeing

GoodYarn is an evidence-based, peer-delivered, mental health literacy programme for workplaces, both rural and urban, that enables people to talk about mental health. The first step in addressing mental health in the workplace is being able to talk about it.Trinity Lands wanted to give rural wellbeing a major boost with a $100,000 donation for the GoodYarn mental health programme. The funding was awarded at Trinity Lands’ 2021 annual dinner....

Farming for good

A brand new $185,000 state-of-the-art St Johns ambulance has hit the roads of South Waikato today thanks to the generosity of Trinity Lands, a set of trust farms farming for good to give their profits back to the community and good causes.Another truck has also hit the road thanks to the farmers giving an additional $50,000 for a refrigerated truck for Good Neighbour, a Bay of Plenty charity which re-distributes food to local people in need....

Collaborating with EmpowermentNZ in making a difference

The community hub welcomes the homeless, the lonely and – increasingly – the working poor, and surrounds them with support, education and love.Trinity Lands is proud to be EmpowermentNZ’s largest corporate donor, enabling the phenomenal work they do for those struggling in the heart of Kiwifruit country....