Support for Cambridge elderly boosted by new Resthaven Fund

“Quite simply, we want to give our older community members choice.”

That’s the vision of the Friends of Resthaven Foundation Trust in Cambridge, which will now be easier to realise thanks to their new Momentum Waikato endowment fund opening to public donations.

The retirement village and care centres run by the Cambridge Resthaven Trust offer a wide range of services, with an emphasis on providing quality, affordable facilities and support for seniors.

To boost that ethos, the Friends of Resthaven Foundation Trust came into being in 2022 via the merger of the Friends of Resthaven group established in the 1970s and the Resthaven Foundation started in 2012.

Combining its predecessors’ missions of both active support and fundraising, this Foundation actively fundraises for projects and activities that support Resthaven residents and/or the wider elderly population of Cambridge.

Don Harris became the Chair of the Friends of Resthaven Foundation Trust a couple of years ago because as a village resident he was keen to accelerate its activities and grow its impact.

“We’re holding regular fundraising events,” says Don. “For instance, we recently held a very successful nine-hole Golf tournament at the Cambridge Golf Club, which paid for new Wooltec recliner chairs for Resthaven’s care centres.”

Other projects funded over the years through the efforts of the Foundation’s volunteers include therapy tools for residents with memory loss and dementia, training for Cambridge rest homes’ employees, a community time capsule, brightly coloured bowling balls for visually impaired residents, and the ResthaVAN for residents’ outings, pictured below, which was achieved in collaboration with Cambridge High School students.

Don was introduced to the idea of setting up an endowment fund to provide a perpetual income stream by Kevin Burgess, one of the Fund Champions for Momentum Waikato’s Cambridge Community Fund and a member of the Cambridge Resthaven Trust’s Board.

Together they have now kickstarted the ‘Friends of Resthaven Foundation Trust Fund’, crossing the $50,000 threshold required for an active endowment through donations from the Foundation, Kevin and his wife Jane, and an anonymous supporter.

“I’ve been going out to rest homes to introduce residents to the idea of foundations and endowments,” says Kevin, “to show them that donating or leaving a gift in a Will to an endowment will help provide perpetual support for the community that has supported them through life.”

“The initial focus of this new Friends of Resthaven Foundation Trust Fund will be to assist Resthaven residents, but soon it will also be generally supporting the elderly in Cambridge.”

“I’ve had family at the Resthaven Village and my mother used to work there, so I’ve wanted to do this for a while, to make it easy to give towards something that will be here in 50-100 years’ time,” says Kevin.

Don says, “our biggest thing of late has been to get this Fund going - it is about it being there, to give people confidence in our activities.”

“It is about community by community. The Resthaven ethos is to look after the elderly.”

The new Fund provides a way for anyone to donate towards that goal all year round, providing a solid perpetual base income that will boost the Foundation’s event-based fundraising.

Kevin says as well as immediate donations, the new Fund would very much welcome pledges to leave gifts in Wills.

“When it comes to your Will, you of course look after your family first, but what about also giving something towards ongoing support for the elderly of Cambridge?”

To find out more and to donate to the Friends of Resthaven Foundation Fund, visit momentumwaikato.nz/friendsofresthavenfoundationfund.