Above: The Tīnui Playgroup used their grant funding to help restore their facility following Cyclone Gabrielle.

The WBS Charitable Trust considers applications twice each year. Chair of the Trust, John Booth, said he is amazed at the variety of applications they receive in each round.

‘We are always hugely impressed by the amount of good that the different organisations are doing for the Wairarapa community. The people behind these organisations are generally volunteers and often doing their volunteer work on top of their own everyday business. It’s passion like this that makes the Wairarapa, and New Zealand, the amazing place that it is.’

Earlier in the year, the Trust granted $26,000 to 16 local organisations. As always, the decision on which applications to fund was a tough one for the Trustees to make. But social need became the focus of the round.

‘The past year has been a tough one for many people. We chose to make social need the main focus of our earlier round, knowing that those grants would make the biggest difference to our community at the time.’

Anyone keen to apply for funding from the WBS Charitable Trust will be able to do so through our website between 01 October and 15 November.

The Trust looks to support applications that fall within the following categories:

• arts and culture
• sports and recreation
• environment and sustainability
• education
• community support