A Tauranga Family’s Legacy for Local Youth
Recently, we met up with Theresa Tingey to talk about her son, and the legacy they have created for him through the Acorn Foundation.
Josh was involved with a wide range of sports and activities, including hockey, motorcross, fishing, skiing, among many more. He was engaged to his partner, Bex and had become a registered surveyor when he tragically passed in a paragliding accident in 2018. He was just 28 years old.
Following the loss of Josh, a group from his university surveying class gave his family a donation. This became the seed funding for the Joshua Tingey Memorial Fund, established with the Acorn Foundation.
The fund started small, but over the years people have continued to donation, alongside supporting the annual ‘Joshua Tingey Memorial Fishing Competition’, www.jtfishingcomp.co.nz. This has helped the fund grow, enabling it to distribute more than $30,000 to youth initiatives in the Western Bay of Plenty.
Currently, distributions from Josh’s fund support Youth Encounter. Josh had supported this charity himself and had ridden at many of their fundraising events.
Based in Paengaroa, Te Puke, Youth Encounter offers activity-based pathways of mentoring, counselling, therapy, camps, and leadership development. These programmes empower young people aged 9–24 to move from insecurity to identity, from despondency to purpose, from despair to hope, and from victimisation to resilience.
Acorn Foundation invests all donations made to the fund and distributes a proportion of the investment return each year. This ensures the fund continues to benefit youth for generations to come. To learn more about how the model works, visit www.acornfoundation.org.nz