As well as looking after family, both feel a sense of care for the community where they have built their lives. They say that those who live there will know that the region is used to looking after its own, “You don’t have too much trouble plugging into that local enthusiasm to support local, people who live here want to give back here. Community foundations give the opportunity for people to do that, to support a place rather than a particular cause,” says Richard.Both see education as an important pathway for self-determination. They have set up a Northern Wairoa Literacy Fund with Northland Community Foundation to benefit their local community, which will be activated through a gift in their will. Their aim is that their fund will help to address disparities of opportunity they see in the region. “Books and literacy are so very important,” says Helen. “If you can get one on one teaching for kids while they are young you can really change their future. So many are missing out on the wonder of books”.The Alspach’s fund will be invested and grown into an ongoing source of funding to support educational programmes for children. “It’s a fund for any organisation in the area - be it a school, marae or church group - which wants to start a programme to help kids to learn to read and get enjoyment out of books,” says Richard.The couple are also leaving a gift in their will to the Northern Wairoa Fund, to be invested for the wider benefit of the community. “This area is overrepresented in every negative social index that exists. Rural regions need to look after their own needs, nobody else is going to do it for them, and they should be given every opportunity to fight back. Our legacy gifts are part of that fight”.
