Community News

At WBS, we’re proud that our profits stay right here in the Wairarapa community. Through the WBS Charitable Trust, we support all sorts of groups and initiatives with grants.

Among the successful applicants in the WBS Charitable Trust’s October funding round was Arrow FM, who’d applied for a grant to buy wireless microphone and recording systems.

We couldn’t have been prouder of the St Matthew’s Collegiate First XI cricket team following their win in the 2023 NZC Venus Cup Nationals in December

They say that everyone has 15 minutes of fame. This past weekend it was our CE John’s turn, where he featured in an article in the Sunday Stars Times (and Stuff) about how CEOs spend their summer.

The credit rating agency Fitch has once again given WBS a stable BB+ rating, a score that the Masterton-based lending and investment provider has now held for more than 15 years.

Another local group that received support from the WBS Charitable Trust back in April was Wairarapa Hockey. Their Operations Manager, Sharon Gates, was in touch recently to let us know how their grant made a difference.

We recently closed our October funding round. We’ll soon let applicants know the results of their submissions. In the meantime, good news stories keep coming in from applicants in our April funding round. The latest of these stories was from the Wairarapa Spitfires Baseball Club.

What a pleasure it was to attend the WBS Wairarapa Awards Gala Dinner on Tuesday night. So many amazing individuals, businesses and organisations that are putting in the mahi on their own, or with a team, to have a positive impact in our community.

From humble beginnings come great things. This resonated in a chat with Emma Kitchingman, a local student and savvy student investor with WBS.

WBS turned 150 this year. As part of the WBS Charitable Trust’s celebration of this milestone, the Trust committed an investment of $150,000, to be shared through four grant funding rounds across this year and next.

The April community funding round saw a large number of diverse applications from across Wairarapa. We are thrilled to share some more worthy local recipients of that round. Our second (and last) community funding round of the year opens next month, October 2023.

WBS is very proud to support local initiatives, fulfilling our purpose in ‘Helping our community prosper’. This month we continue to showcase some fabulous local organisations who were successful in their applications for our WBS community funding round back in April 2023.

Rather than our profits heading offshore, at WBS, any profits we distribute go back into our local community through grants and sponsorship.

We’re super proud to be supporting the 2023 Tīrama Matariki Light Glow at Masterton’s Queen Elizabeth Park this weekend, Friday 28 and Saturday 29 July. Tīrama Matariki means ‘the sparkling Matariki’ and it’s our region’s most prominent indigenous festival, promoting Māori artists and culture.

Wairarapa is special place. We know this, but were reminded again by the healthy number of applications received in the latest WBS community funding round, which closed on 30 April 2023. We are now humbled to be able to recognise the range of wonderful initiatives and sheer hard work being carried out in all corners of our communities, each improving and enhancing the lives of so many.

July is set to sparkle brighter than ever, with snow in the forecast for this years’ mid-winter Festival of Christmas in Greytown. The annual event will once again see Greytown transformed into a winter wonderland for the entire month, with a jam-packed programme of events, workshops, food, live music and family fun, as well as a special Matariki programme.

WBS is very proud to be getting behind phenomenal young talent Liam Lamb, as he leaves the running tracks of New Zealand to hit the famed athletics circuits of Europe. Indeed, we should all be watching on with interest as we could be seeing Wairarapa’s next Olympian in the making.

We were thrilled to be represented by Chief Executive Officer John Healy at the glittering awards ceremony held on Thursday 8 June, where the announcements for all sections were made.

It is with great pride we share that WBS has been unveiled as the naming rights sponsor of this year’s Wairarapa Awards, in an exciting new partnership with the region’s local Chamber of Commerce, Business Wairarapa. The event will become a feature of WBS’ 150th anniversary celebrations, reinforcing our strong commitment to supporting residents and businesses in the region.

WBS is truly delighted to be a major sponsor of the 2023 Wairarapa Film Festival, to be held in Masterton 25 – 28 May. The four-day festival is a special celebration of local film and film-makers, including inspirational stories, book signings, film workshops and fabulous guest speakers.