$75,000 of community funding available for White Hill communities

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Meridian Energy has renewed its White Hill Community Fund, making $75,000 available over the next three years to communities in Mossburn, Lumsden and Dipton. The focus of the Fund is to support grass-roots community projects that generate direct benefits for the local community.

The Community Fund has previously supported a diverse range of projects, including community pools, schools, historical societies and volunteer fire brigades.

Dipton’s community pool will continue its life as a valued town asset after $1,180 was granted by the Fund this year to help repair structural cracking. “We’re thrilled that funds like Meridian’s exist to support small but vital community projects” says Kim Spencer-McDonald, Chair of Dipton Community Baths trust.

A grant of $5,000 from the Fund has helped purchased a portable pump to power equipment used by the Mossburn Volunteer Fire Brigade. “In emergency situations we need to operate effectively and efficiently. The new automatic pump replaces our old hand-pump, freeing up a pair of hands for the many emergencies we attend. Grants like this really make a big difference for volunteer organisations like us” says Lance Hellewell, Chief Volunteer of Mossburn’s Volunteer Fire Brigade.

“We’re delighted that Meridian has renewed the White Hill Community Fund” says Jim Guyton, Meridian White Hill Community Fund panel member. “As a member of the panel I am so proud of the quality of applications we get from our community and the success of the projects we’ve supported. I can’t wait to see the next round of applications” says Jim.

“Supporting the communities we work in is very important to us” says Mark Cockburn, Wind Operations Manager at Meridian and Chair of the White Hill Community Fund. “The Community Fund model seems to really work for our communities, supporting projects that are genuinely needed. In fact we recently won a national Sustainable 60 award for our Waitaki Community Fund, which uses the same approach as the White Hill Fund” says Mark.

To find out more about the White Hill Community Fund, including how and when to apply, visit meridianenergy.co.nz/communityfunds

ENDS

For more information contact:
Katy Glenie
External Communications
Meridian Energy
021 997 523

About Meridian Energy
Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates seven hydro stations, four wind farms within New Zealand, and one wind farm in Australia:
• Manapouri power station and six hydro stations on the Waitaki River in the South Island
• Te Apiti wind farm near Palmeston North
• White Hill wind farm in Southland
• West Wind farm in Wellington
• Te Uku wind farm in Raglan
• Mt Millar wind farm, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
• CalRENEW-1 solar farm in Mendota, California
Internationally, Meridian has operations in Sydney Australia and San Francisco, California.
Meridian also retails electricity to around 270,000 individual customer connections (including Powershop) throughout New Zealand, which includes households, farms and businesses. It also provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the Rio Tinto Alcan New Zealand Limited aluminium smelter in Bluff. 
Meridian invests strongly in renewable energy development and has over 1,500 megawatts of Australasian development opportunities in the development pipeline.