Boys Brigade Waikato Charitable Trust Fund

Donations to The Boys’ Brigade Waikato Charitable Trust Fund grow funding for local Boys’ Brigade groups’ leadership development, inter-regional events and outdoor experiences.

The Boys’ Brigade Waikato Charitable Trust was founded through the generosity of past Boys' Brigade leaders and members leaving bequests in their wills, so its Board readily understood how a community foundation works when they were introduced to Momentum Waikato.

Like other uniformed children’s groups, the Boys’ Brigade once had a much higher public profile - those with memory of 20th Century New Zealand may recall routinely seeing lads out and about in the organisation’s military-cadet-style uniform.

A network of units around the country has continued since those days, with numbers going up and down over time – during the 2010s the Brigade was the fastest growing uniformed youth movement in the country.

The Brigade launched ICONZ in 2002 and now all its Waikato units are part of this popular parallel network, which takes a modern approach to producing well-rounded young ‘Kiwi icons’.

These days the Boys’ Brigade and ICONZ groups operate under the same new modern logo and slogan ‘Faith, Foundation, Future’.

Trust Treasurer Glenn Johnson says that word spreads very quickly when an ICONZ group is set up in a neighbourhood.

“Activities can include everything from mountain safety skills, to practical handcrafts, to learning foundational life skills, to team work. The end goal is the boys getting a quality experience that is well run, well-resourced and really effective.

“The parents consistently express their gratitude in what our leaders and the programmes do for their boys,” says Glenn.

“It really does build Kiwi boys into Kiwi icons.”

“Encouraging the boys to build their lives on the foundation of the Christian faith is what makes Boys’ Brigade and ICONZ unique.”

The Boys’ Brigade Waikato Trust was founded in 2005 with a bequest left by strong supporter Gordon Dixon. The funding it offers supports the Brigade’s Waikato units’ leadership development through national-level courses and enables events that foster inter-regional cooperation and experiences for the youngsters.

“We certainly would welcome further bequests to our Fund, as greater funding to the local units will strengthen leadership and encourage greater participation.

“Even small gifts to the Boys’ Brigade Waikato Charitable Trust Fund at Momentum Waikato will have a tremendously positive and ongoing impact on the next generation of young men,” says Glenn.