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A $440,000 fund stemming from the sale of the Eskdale base of a youth cadet training academy 30 years ago has been vested in the Hawke’s Bay Foundation to benefit future youth initiatives.
The Napier Cadet Academy Trust bought the 1930s-built Beck House from the Department of Social Welfare in 1989 — when chaired by Napier police district commander Brian Williams — to run the Napier Cadet Academy. Its funding included $120,000 from the Ministry of Justice, $80,000 from trust fundraising, and a $200,000 interest-free loan from the then-Department of Social Welfare.
A newspaper clipping announcing the Napier Cadet Academy Trust's 1989 acquisition of Beck House, to be used for resident training programmes for at-risk youth. With funding models changed, it was sold in 1994 with proceeds being held in a trust administered for youth projects, and now it is being turned over to the Hawke's Bay Foundation. Photo / Knowledge Bank
At the time, more fundraising was planned, including the 1990 Unity Walk from Taupō to Napier.
A dream of former serviceman and social welfare department employee Ivan Wilson, who also became a city Napier city councillor in the 1990s, the academy is said to have been a popular and life-changing step for many of the young participants in its military-style residential life skills courses for at-risk youth.
But the property was sold only five years later, in 1994, after changes in government policy on funding and referrals made it no longer viable.
The proceeds were kept as a fund maintained by the trust with mainly interest in investment supporting other youth causes over the years.
Founding trustee Alan Dick QSO, who in 2019 retired from 33 years in local body politics, including a 1989-2001 stint as mayor of Napier and two years as chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, felt the time was right to secure its future by aligning with Hawke’s Bay Foundation, which was established in 2012.
“Retirements, bereavements and time have taken their toll and so the surviving trustees have made the decision to pass the mantle on to Hawke’s Bay Foundation to continue advocating for Hawke’s Bay youth,” he said.
Following the sale of Beck House, the trust continued to support initiatives such as schools-delivered life skills and personal development programme Skills For Growing, Police Blue Light Activities, Youth Chronic Fatigue and others.
Trust treasurer Gavin Earle said the transfer of the trust’s remaining assets, and winding up the trust but with a deed to the foundation for the purposes of the fund, became a “no-brainer”, adding: “Compliance costs for the trust have been increasing in recent years with legal obligations and responsibilities on trustees more onerous today.”
“When considering these factors together with the time and effort involved in managing the ongoing administration and process of assessing applications for funding, it was becoming more and more challenging,” he said.
“As the trustees considered what was best for the Napier Cadent Academy (NCA) in the long term, we were increasingly impressed with how Hawke’s Bay Foundation was operating,” he said.
Napier Cadet Academy Trust treasurer Gavin Earle (centre), flanked by Hawke's Bay Foundation executive officer Amy Bowkett (left) and foundation trustee Andrew Caseley. Photo / Supplied
“It became clear that if we were to secure the future of the NCA and continue supporting youth in Hawke’s Bay, then moving the trust into the foundation was the best way to ensure these funds were used efficiently and effectively into the future.”
“The NCA has always been about helping youth in Hawke’s Bay, with a particular focus on those who have challenges in their lives and don’t have the same opportunities,” he said.
“Our trustees are very comforted knowing that having passed the baton, the foundation will ensure that these broad principles are continued in perpetuity.”
In 2002, the site became the home, initially on lease, of Hukarere Girls’ College, which last year was swamped in the Cyclone Gabrielle floods and evacuated; the school now runs from a site in Havelock North.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
