September 2013 Recipients
Clevedon Kindergarten

Clevedon Kindergarten received over $2,100 from the Mazda Foundation to purchase a variety of musical equipment to begin a musical area at the Playcentre. The Auckland based kindergarten considers music to be an important part of the centre’s curriculum. Currently the only musical facilities it has are home-made drums and some old musical instruments. The centre has 30 children enrolled and the current musical facilities aren’t sufficient. The grant from the Mazda Foundation will allow the kindergarten to purchase some high-quality musical instruments for the children to play with; encouraging the children to develop interpersonal and sharing skills, as well as to have fun making their own music. The musical area is an on-going project for the centre and parents will be kept up to date with its success through a newsletter distributed at the end of each term.

September 2013 Recipients
Chris Paulin

The Mazda Foundation donated $5,000 to assist a retired marine biologist to share his knowledge with Wellington school children as part of its final round of funding for 2013. The recipient, Chris Paulin, is preparing a field guide detailing the plants and animals present in the Taputeranga Marine Reserve on Wellington’s south coast, which he will distribute to attendees of the Island Bay Marine Education Centre in Wellington. Mr Paulin’s lifelong work has revolved around the marine environment in New Zealand and he would like to share his knowledge with children who are interested in discovering sea life. The education centre hosts approximately 100 school groups yearly, which would expose his expertise to an estimated 8,000 school children each year. The Foundation grant will go towards publishing costs for this guide.

September 2013 Recipients
Karori Community Centre

Karori Community Centre received approximately $900 to fund new kitchen equipment including a fridge freezer and microwave to help with the centre’s drop-in lunch service. Karori Community Centre chairman Michael Fagg is pleased the centre will be able to continue offering a filling lunch for less than $4 and a space to socialise for people who need it most. The drop-in centre has run for the last 34 years, offering lunch to people who live alone. The centre mainly has elderly people coming along for a social lunch, but also welcomes new mothers, widows or those who have retired from work. At the moment, the centre is unable to freeze items as the fridge freezer has broken – this is essential as the centre often receives donations from local businesses that are a struggle to preserve. Volunteers will now be able to keep the food fresher for longer, accept donated bread and food items, and offer a wider variety of food to the patrons, which in the long run will help provide a better service to the Karori community.

September 2013 Recipients
Perry Outdoor Education Trust

The Mazda Foundation donated over $2,000 to Perry Outdoor Education Trust as part of its final round of funding for 2013. The Hamilton based trust works with schools to develop quality outdoor education programmes that schools can sustain and build into its curriculum. Currently the trust works with 11 low decile schools from all around the country. The programme coordinators provide a free service to support teachers with how to tailor their curriculum to include outdoor experiences for students. The funding from the Mazda Foundation will allow the trust to purchase two replacement mountain bikes to ensure the trust can continue to deliver interesting outdoor experiences for students that attend these schools. The trust works very closely with low decile schools to help them develop engaging and educational outdoor experiences for students. Students are encouraged to learn and connect with their environment with an aim to empower them and provide them with an experience they otherwise may not have been able to enjoy. The mountain bikes will allow the trust to offer more bike orientated activities for the students and will help to engage the students and most importantly make a fun environment for them to learn in.

September 2013 Recipients
Touch Compass Dance Trust

The Mazda Foundation donated more than $2,100 to Touch Compass Dance Trust, New Zealand’s only professional dance company where disabled and non-disabled dancers work collaboratively to create ground-breaking dance performances. The funding from the Mazda Foundation will assist the North Shore based trust in providing a safe environment to run dance workshops. The donation will enable the trust to purchase an expandable safety barrier to be positioned across a roller door exit to ensure disabled youth remain inside the venue during lessons. A large movable white board is also required for sight-impaired participants and for parents visiting the centre. The Mazda Foundation will help to make a big difference to the day-to-day running of the centre. The valuable edition of the safety barrier and the whiteboard will allow the centre to work efficiently and safely. The centre encourages participants to explore creative processes through dance and to think differently about what is possible using their unique bodies. Participants learn to develop new skills and broaden their creative horizons as well as improving social skills and their fitness.

September 2014 Recipients
Christchurch School of Music

Christchurch School of Music received $2,331.07 to purchase a sound system which will improve the quality of its shows, including solo performances, recitals and concerts. The school provides tuition in practical and theoretical music skills and provides opportunities to study, practice and perform a wide range of music, such as rock and jazz. It also produces several instrumental and choral music concerts, and recitals throughout the year. The school offers its students financial hardship grants and earthquake scholarships, as it believes musical education should be available to all young people regardless of their financial situation. This assistance from the Mazda foundation grant means the school will no longer need to hire a sound system and can continue to offer grants and scholarships, along with keeping their fees low cost.

September 2013 Recipients
Wood Hatton Playcentre

Wood Hatton Playcentre received $1,000 from the Mazda Foundation. The centre is a family focused parent cooperative that provides opportunities for young children to learn and develop, grow and explore together. The play centre will use the grant to purchase quality art and craft supplies for children who are least able to afford it. Located in a low socioeconomic area the centre provides services to those who need assistance the most. The centre is always running on the bare minimum and is grateful for the opportunity to provide different materials to the children that attend. The Playcentre plans to purchase craft supplies including paints, papers, glitters, glue, clay and collage materials, as well as some special items to help celebrate Christmas. Members of the centre applied for the grant to provide their children with a tailored learning experience. For example, one of the children has Down Syndrome and as part of her therapy she loves to explore textures and enjoys painting. The craft supplies will encourage her to explore the mode of expression and learning.

June 2013 Recipients
Beanstalk Kindergarten

Beanstalk Kindergarten received $700 from the Mazda Foundation to purchase a magnetic polydron set, providing an opportunity for the children to experiment with shapes, space and magnetism. A magnetic polydron set is a proven learning tool that provides a fun, hands-on learning experience. As well as promoting creativity, the children will also develop important social skills such as sharing, cooperation, helping and problem solving. This will be integrated into the Beanstalk curriculum, helping to fulfil the kindergartens goal of providing a high quality, stimulating learning environment.

June 2013 Recipients
CCS Disability Action Auckland

CCS Disability Action Auckland, an organisation that runs an early intervention service for children with disabilities has been awarded $1,694 from the Mazda Foundation to purchase two iPad 2’s. Part of CCS Disability’s service is providing speech therapy to children with speech and language impairments, a result of ailments such as cerebral palsy, autism and intellectual disability. The iPad’s will allow staff to use as range of apps that have been developed to help with children’s language, communication, learning and engagement in activities. These applications are effective because they help to motivate and reward students, while also helping them to use and learn about modern technology and learning techniques.

June 2013 Recipients
Hamilton Wanderers Football

Hamilton Wanderers Women’s Football squad have been granted over $2,000 by the Mazda Foundation to purchase tracksuits for the entire squad. One of only two women’s team in the club, the Wanderers are focused on growing the women’s game in the Waikato region, and creating development pathways into senior competition for females. Upgrading the women’s representative attire is seen as an essential component in reinforcing the values associated with the squad. New tracksuits will help to enhance the unity within the team, while assisting with the attraction of new players in the future.

June 2013 Recipients
Mangawhai Beach School

Mangawhai Beach School has been awarded nearly $1,500 from the Mazda Foundation to purchase an electric guitar, amplifier and sound mixer. The school aims to provide its students with the opportunity to become more involved with music and experience its social, cultural and educational benefits. A number of groups within the school will benefit from this grant, such as the school band and the Kapa Haka group, who regularly perform to the community.

June 2013 Recipients
Marton Football Club

The Marton Football Club under 10’s have been awarded $1,948.19 from the Mazda Foundation to purchase 20 new playing kits for the team. As the only football playing group in a town of just 4,500 people, it is hoped that the new kits will help to raise the profile of Marton Football Club, encouraging other young players to get involved in the sport. Marton Football Club’s mission is to make the game accessible to youth of any age in the Marton Community. They aim to grow and develop the club so that they have teams in every grade.

June 2013 Recipients
Nova Montessori

Nova Montessori School has been awarded $1,500 to purchase rainwater tanks and further develop its permaculture garden. Following the Christchurch earthquakes, the need for self-sustainability became apparent and the school has put significant effort into educating its students around sustainable, low-impact methods of living. The new rainwater tanks will collect water, providing and supplying the school with “free energy,” while removing the reliance on the city’s water supply. The Bokashi Bins, along with worm farms and compost will provide an effective, environmentally friendly waste management system.

June 2013 Recipients
SPCA Auckland

SPCA Auckland has been granted over $7,000 by the Mazda Foundation to purchase 10 Samsung tablets for callout staff to use on the road, meaning they will have wireless access to the ‘Petnet’ system, which stores all records of animals and complaints. Currently, on-call staff have to travel back and forth from the office to review their files and emails. This takes up a lot of time and resources which would be better spent attending jobs and helping animals. SPCA’s Auckland inspectors collected more than 6,000 animals and travelled 380,000km on callouts over the previous year. These tablets will increase the efficiency of this already incredible service.

June 2013 Recipients
St. Clair Surf Lifesaving

St. Clair Surf Lifesaving Club has been awarded $5,000 by the Mazda Foundation to purchase four paddle boards for the Junior club. These boards will be used for both training and competing and are an integral piece of equipment for a Junior Lifesaver in training. Junior membership at the club has grown from 30 to 120 children over the past five years. With such an increase in numbers there has been a lack of resources to service the entire membership and provide the proper training required to develop future Surf Lifesavers. These four boards will ease the pressure on the existing resources. These are fantastic skills for young people to learn because New Zealand has some of the world’s most treacherous beaches.

March 2013 Recipients
Stoke Playcentre

Stoke Playcentre, based in Nelson, has been granted $2,170 by the Mazda Foundation to create a Pasifika themed sandpit including a palm tree cover to provide the children with protection from the elements during playtime. The centre’s focus is on learning through play and encourages child initiated play with the belief that it provides older children with the opportunity to model positive qualities to their younger members. The centre has already completed extensive fundraising to build a big swing in their play area and need the sandpit to finish off their outdoor play environment.

March 2013 Recipients
Pindrop Foundation

Pindrop Foundation, a Meadow Bank based charity in Auckland, received $5,000 from the Mazda Foundation to fund a school outreach program. The aim of the program is to educate Kiwi kids about how to protect their hearing from noise induced hearing loss, New Zealand’s fifth largest claim on ACC. Noise is a significant cause of hearing loss which is estimated to affect 65,000 New Zealanders and is reaching epidemic proportions across the country. Pindrop plans to launch a programme which focuses on teaching students about the dangers of hearing loss and the importance of protecting their hearing for the future. The organisation’s initiative is focussed on prevention rather than cure by raising awareness of hearing loss and the importance of hearing protection.

March 2013 Recipients
Mobility Assistance Dogs

Mobility Dogs Assistance Trust, based in Auckland, has received $1,000 from the Mazda Foundation to assist with the care of their puppies. The charitable trust provides people living with long term physical disabilities with a dog to aid their mobility. Mobility dogs are trained in a range of special tasks to be able to functionally assist people with severe disabilities and are trained to meet their owner’s specific needs. This can range from barking for help, to paying for purchases across the counter or taking shoes and socks off. The puppies undergo intensive training to ensure that they can meet their owner’s demands which requires them to stay at the Trust’s kennel and training facility for long periods of time. Bedding needs to be changed daily in order to ensure the dogs are healthy and well cared for. The grant from the Mazda Foundation will be used to purchase a new dryer to enable bedding to be cleaned and dried more efficiently.

March 2013 Recipients
Marlborough Falcon Conservation Trust

The Marlborough Falcon Conservation Trust based in Blenheim has been granted $2,512 by the Mazda Foundation to assist in the purchase of an essential incubator and brooder for its New Zealand Falcon captive breeding and release programme. The famous New Zealand Falcon, featured on New Zealand’s $20 note, is the country’s only remaining endemic native bird of prey and is considered a nationally threatened species and at risk of extinction. The purchase of an incubator and brooder will increase the number of breeding techniques available to the Trust and support them in achieving a successful breeding season. The grant is intended to help to safeguard the national treasure by improving breeding and rehabilitation facilities resulting in the release of as many birds as possible into the wild.

March 2013 Recipients
Victory Playcentre

Victory Playcentre, based in Nelson, has received $2925.60 from the Mazda Foundation to purchase new bark for the centre’s play area. The playground is used every day by the children and over time the bark had begun to get packed down and was verging on the minimum depth of bark required for the children’s safety. The new bark will ensure the children remain safe when they play. The bark will be used for the play area and also for an obstacle course, which is set up most days.

March 2013 Recipients
Wellington Zoo

Wellington Zoo has been granted $3,650 from the Mazda Foundation for assistance with food, medicine and habitat costs for its Tuatara conservation programme. Tuataras are native to New Zealand but have become endangered as a result of introduced predators. The unique lizards have a long life span and in some cases can live up to 150 years-old. This long lifespan means that Tuataras require a consistent level of funding to continue care, research and develop effective breeding programmes. The conservation programme aims to give the Tuatara the best possible chance of survival for generations to come and provides learning opportunities for visitors. The zoo recently celebrated its 100th anniversary of raising awareness of the native Tuatara and in 2012 successfully bred and raised five new born Tuataras.