Sir James Fletcher 1st Memorial Trust
Tertiary Education Grants

On 22 March 1988, the Deeds of the Sir James Fletcher 1st Memorial Trust were signed. This action again publicly acknowledged the special commitment made by Sir James Fletcher 1st to the Tuwharetoa residents of Onepu and the Pahipoto landowners of the mill site registered in 1953 who were affected by the establishment of the Tasman Mill.

The purpose of this Trust is to provide annual Tertiary Education Grants to encourage the development and personal potential through education for the descendants of these families.

Financial grants made by the Trust are designed to recognise and assist applicants who through their past efforts have demonstrated a potential to progress further in a particular field of endeavour. Grants are restricted to the field of formal tertiary education, but may also recognise special qualities displayed in the cultural, creative arts, self-improvement, or leadership fields. Special grants may be made to those studying for degrees in the fields of sciences, engineering and management.

The Trust is pleased that the original commitment made to the local community has been reinforced and wishes to encourage any person who fits the criteria for eligibility to apply.

Applications for this grant are now open for 2012. For further information please contact Kelly Hauraki on 07 323 7377,  or P.O. Box 119, Kawerau 3169 or click the following link for an application form SJFFMT 2012 Application 

To see if you're eligible for more Maori Scholarships and grants click on this link: http://www.takoa.co.nz/scholarships.htm

Awards Ceremony for 2011 Recipients

The 2011 Awards Ceremony was held at Kokohinau Marae. Once again they put on a beautiful spread and the atmosphere was a lovely and warm whanau environment. Once we finished our meal, we moved into the wharenui for the awards presentations.

All the Trustees and special guests were introduced by Chris Marjoribanks, the Chairman of the Trust. The special guests were Angus Fletcher, representing the Fletcher Trust, and Peter McCarty, representing Norske Skog Tasman.

The Ceremony started with presentations for the General Awards. There were 66 recipients of this award and a short bio was read out for each recipient on the course/degree they were studying towards, and which year of the course they were on. Then the presentations for the Business Prospect Awards were presented, of which there were 12 recipients. And finally the Business Awards were presented. There were 9 recipients for this award and ended with a special award for Natalie Coates as she has been accepted into Harvard University, USA to study a Masters of Law. On accepting her award Natalie then spoke on behalf of the recipients and gave a brief account of her upbringing and schooling, she then talked about seeing two sides of a story from a lawyer’s point of view.

The evening was well received and enjoyed by all and it was a great turn out given that a lot of the recipients study outside of the Bay of Plenty.  We wish the recipients for 2011 all the best for their studies this year and look forward to the next intake in 2012.