Momentum Waikato Update - October 2024
Published on 16 October, 2024
Nau Mai, Haere Mai!
Welcome to the spring edition of the Momentum Waikato Update newsletter.
‘If you stand still in the forest, you can feel a heartbeat’
The signing of the Deed of Gift for the Maungatautari Sanctuary Nest Egg Fund back in July. Front - Maungatautari Ecological Island trustees Don Scarlet, Norma Taute. Back row - Momentum's Simon Wickham and Andrea Jones, Maungatautari trustees Graham Scott and Graham Parker, Maungatautari CEO Helen Hughes.
A nature sanctuary is not a short-term project.
The effort to preserve and enhance Maungatautari, the Waikato’s ‘Sanctuary Mountain’ is, by definition, a very very long-term mission. It is a place that is saving species and bringing joy to people, and will do for centuries to come.
It is literally a commitment that is as close to ‘forever’ as any that can be made by humans.
Such an undertaking therefore requires financial solutions that will provide support far beyond the usual horizons of conservation funding.
Which is why the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust has established the Maungatautari Sanctuary Nest Egg Fund at Momentum Waikato, the region’s community foundation.
Just getting started...
Above: The Momentum Waikato team. L-R: Mark Servian, Andrea Jones, Dave Christiansen and Janice Lapwood. Absent Ruwani Perera.
By Dave Christiansen, Momentum Waikato's new Executive Officer.
I can scarcely believe it’s already over a month since I started at Momentum Waikato, and as with any occasion you start in a new organisation, there’s so much to learn!
To date though everything I have experienced here just confirms what I thought and hoped for when I first walked in the door.
Momentum has such an amazing team, so dedicated and incredibly effective – I am blown away by how much such a small crew can achieve. The word ‘passionate’ can easily be over-used, but it is absolutely the right one, and that includes our highly committed governance board too.
Mind you, when your vision and mission is to ‘build a better Waikato, for everyone, forever’, it’s hard not to get passionate about it.
The Purposes of Money and Wealth – a personal view
By Neil Richardson, Chair of Momentum Waikato.
Jan and I both came from families with limited means. When we got together at university our first challenge was to pay our way through our studies. Then, setting up a flat, and saving enough for the deposit on our first home.
And so, the story goes on – just like so many families in Aotearoa, and Australia where we were born and raised. Sufficient money was necessary for us to personally progress our lives, but as the years have moved along, our need and use of money, and wealth, has changed and evolved.
Over time I have concluded there are perhaps five simple ways in which we think about and use our own and others’ money and wealth. These views often reflect the differences in each individual’s personal values and aspirations, and the nature and current stage of their life journey.
Drag Queen Bingo with the Waikato Women's Fund!
Less than two weeks to go and tickets are selling fast!
Grab your friends and join us for a fabulous fun evening of Drag Queen Bingo, raising money for the Waikato Women's Fund.
No need to dress in drag, but we do encourage sequins... less is NOT more 😉
Grab your tickets from Eventbrite.
We can't wait to see you there!
You can still donate to the new Medieval Garden
Hamilton Gardens enthusiasts - please support the creation of its Medieval Garden!
Step back in time to Europe in the Middle Ages. The setting is a monastery and its two most important gardens, a Cloister Garth Garden and an Apothecary Garden, one for prayer and meditation, the other for growing medicinal herbs and healing plants.
A fundraising campaign to raise $300,000 needed to complete the new themed space is nearly done - any and all donations will help us get over the line and are most appreciated.
