26/11/2014

The Trusts aim to save west Auckland lives with gift of a new smoke alarms for all 70,000 homes

Fire safety is about to be enhanced for all West Aucklanders with the distribution by The Trusts of some 70,000 new smoke alarms, one for every household.

A voucher will be delivered to every private letterbox in The Trusts’ territory (New Windsor to Westgate) today and tomorrow. All residents have to do is go to a West Liquor or Village Wines and Spirits Store, or The Trusts’ head office in Great North Road, present the voucher and a household bill to show they live within The Trusts’ boundaries, and they will receive one of the new smoke alarms.

‘“We are making this gift because we are owned by the people of west Auckland and they are entitled to expect us to use profits for the good of the community. It is delivering on our slogan of “Giving Back,” says Simon Wickham, CEO of The Trusts.

Using the stores for distribution is the most cost efficient system, but people are under no obligation to purchase anything from us to get their alarm,” he says.

Smoke alarms are credited with saving many lives and properties every year in New Zealand. On average according to the Fire Service, of the 38 people who die in house fires every year, about 30 were in houses without a smoke alarm or a working smoke alarm.

“So smoke alarms save lives, and that’s why we have decided to make this gift,” Mr Wickham says.

It’s not the first time The Trusts have donated a smoke alarm to every household in west Auckland.

“The last time was 10 years ago and we still get stories of those alarms doing their job. But we figured that by now there may be thousands of houses without a smoke alarm – or an alarm that is working. The population has grown, people move on, alarms stop functioning and anyway, so what if people already have smoke alarm? The more they have the better, really,” Mr Wickham says

“So we decided it was time to make the gift again. Hopefully, in some cases they will be the gift of life,” he says.

Mr Wickham says that over the last decade or so either The Trusts or TTCF, had made a number of community-wide including fire extinguishers and first aid kits as well as funding children’s car seats for made available through Plunket.

He says that there has been confusion in the past between gifts made by The Trusts and those made by TTCF which operates pokie machines.

“This gift is from The Trusts, and we’re making it from our trading profits. My job when I became the CEO, was to re-build the organisation following the Gobal Financial Crisis and we made a commitment that as soon as we could, we would resume making major gifts of this nature as one way of Giving Back to the community that owns the business.

“This is on top of the some 200 or so sponsorships, large and small, that we give every year to add to the quality of life out west. These range from major financial support for entities that put us on the national and even international map, right down to a few hundred dollars for club and school newsletters,” he says.

The major sponsorship include naming rights to The Trusts Arena, Associate Sponsorship of the Don Oliver Youth Sport Foundation, and sponsorship of The Northern Mystics, Waitakere United, The Trusts New Zealand Bowls Open played in Henderson two weeks ago. Also included are The Trusts Portage Ceramics Awards and The Trusts Waitakere Arts and Sculpture Awards both of which are thr richest and most prestigious in New Zealand

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