Recipient Stories

Since 1912 Dale Carnegie Training has been training people and businesses in practical principles and processes that help add value to their line of work.

Kiri Diamond

Kiri Diamond has a passion for strengthening communities and schools. Her desire to see the next generation be all that they can be has led her to further her own education as an adult student. Kiri is studying for a Bachelor of Social Sciences at the Waikato University Tauranga Campus,
majoring in Psychology and Educational Studies, and is the 2012 winner of the Eva Trowbridge Scholarship.

Tauranga Youth Search and Rescue

A new initiative to train the next generation of search and rescue volunteers began in 2009. Acorn supported this with a grant of $5000, to provide equipment for the new trainees.

Youth Search and Rescue is affiliated to LandSAR New Zealand. Trainees undergo weekly 2 hour training sessions covering navigation, orientation, radio, rope work, abseiling and search management skills. Students also attend a Basic Mountain Safety course, and 14 weekend camps run both locally and within the wider Bay of Plenty. Annually these students undergo in excess of 780 hours of search and rescue training in a voluntary capacity.

Tauranga Performing Arts Competitions

This event showcases the country’s “best of the best” of New Zealand’s young performing talent. 700 competitors from Christchurch to Whangarei competed over a week in the July school holidays. Acorn’s grant of $6000 provided scholarships for winners in the major categories.

In many cases these talented young people are supported completely by their parents, who are often challenged by the the significant expenses of performing arts tuition, and sometimes equipment as well.

Sophie Wagner

Sophie Wagner is the 2011 recipient of the Bay of Plenty Medical Students Scholarship. This is awarded to a student entering their second year of study in Medicine at the University of Otago.

This scholarship was set up in 2009 by a group of medical professionals in the Tauranga region, who wanted to provide funding to encourage a promising medical student to pursue their studies. In recognition of the high costs of study in this field, the primary condition for awarding the scholarship is financial hardship.

Propel Community Trust

The Propel Community Trust runs weekly sessions called “Stretch And Grow” for more than 30 teenage mums around Tauranga, helping them gain the life skills they need to become the best parents they can be. A recent grant from the Acorn Foundation provided a first aid kit for each of the girls to take home, and funded a first aid course that taught them all the basics for their babies, including CPR.

Deirdre Hauschild

Deirdre Hauschild is an inspiration to anyone who thinks it is too late to go to university and earn a degree.

In 1991, when her daughter was just 3 years old, Deirdre’s husband was involved in a horrific car accident that left him with permanent brain injury, and unable to ever work again. For 17 years she cared for her husband fulltime. Despite not being in a position to further her own education or career, she supported her daughter to enable her to recently graduate with an honours degree in Resource and Environmental Planning, and Deirdre was involved in numerous volunteer roles with local community organisations. These included helping special needs children at school, volunteering at her Church drop-in centre for street people, answering calls on a help-line, and a busy role with the WBOP WWII Crete Veterans Association.

Outward Bound Scholarship

Ros Granger set up a fund with the Acorn Foundation to honour her husband, Bob Granger. Outward Bound had been a huge part of Bob’s life since 1962. Now the passion that Bob Granger had for Outward Bound lives on every year, through Acorn Foundation scholarships that assist local young people to go to Outward Bound.

Katikati Community Patrol

For some of Katikati’s senior residents who live on their own, knowing that the Community Patrol is on their streets at night gives them peace of mind that allows them to sleep.

Beachaven Community House

Papamoa is a fast-growing community with very few social services. Beachaven Community House, located at the far end of Papamoa Beach Road, provides fellowship and support to the people of Papamoa East. They aim to break the cycle of isolation, loneliness and violence by building self esteem and friendship amongst people who choose to come to the house.

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Acorn WINS at the Westpac Tauranga Business Awards

Acorn Foundation's committment to our community was recognised at the 2011 Westpac Tauranga Business Awards on 4th November. Acorn received the award for Organisation of the Year at the gala dinner held at the new TECT Arena at Baypark Stadium. Acorn's deputy Chair Tracy Rea briefly shared the Acorn story with the 500 guests who included Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, and MPs Tony Ryall and Simon Bridges.
A very exciting milestone for the Acorn Foundation.

Recipient Stories

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