The Trust was established and incorporated in 1993 by way of a $20,000 gift from the Paraparaumu RSA to the Trust Board, for the purpose of providing a grant to a student from each local college for on-going tertiary education. The original trustees were Ben New and Wes Allott of the Paraparaumu RSA and the then Principals of Kapiti and Paraparaumu Colleges, K MacNamara and R Campbell.

​

The trustees have changed along with the appointment of new principals at each of the colleges and changes of personnel at the RSA, including the long serving RSA Past President Morrie Bassick.

​

The current trustees are Geoff Knighton (Chair) and Lyn Parker-Williams (both from Paraparaumu RSA), David Lowe (Kapiti College) and Mark Robinson (Paraparaumu College).

​

For the first thirteen years after inception, grants of $1,000 annually to each college were sustained by interest from the trust’s capital. But this needed an injection of additional RSA money following the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 which wiped out the bulk of the trust’s capital funds. Further pressure upon the trust was incurred when the local RSA became unable to continue its support because of cash-flow issues, and for a brief period grants halved.

​

With the amalgamation of the Paraparaumu RSA and the Kapiti Club into Club Vista we have seen a turnaround in the Trusts fortunes. With a strong commitment to the Trust as a community project worthy of support, Club Vista and the Paraparaumu RSA now help the trustees with an annual community contribution of $12,000 which has allowed the number of grants to increase to 3 x $2000 for each college. The Trust deed has also been amended to support students following academic, trades and vocational fields, who face financial hardships.

​

Since 1993 the accumulated contribution of grants totalling $80,000 have supported seventy-two students over the past thirty-three years.

The willingness of good people to serve as trustees, plus the excellent co-operation between the Scholarship Trust, Club Vista and the colleges means that the Trust will be well served to continue.

It is believed to be one of only a very small handful of RSA club trusts providing a regular helping hand to their local colleges.