2018 Canon Oceania Grants Winners

The votes are in and Canon is proud to announce the winners of this year’s Canon Oceania Grants, recognising three outstanding projects, having an impact on both the environment and communities throughout New Zealand.

Hospice Wairarapa, Clarkville School and Project Jonah have each been awarded $4,000 worth of Canon equipment of their choice and $1,000 in cash.

The calibre of entries, from deserving causes, made narrowing down the finalists a challenge, with each application needing to demonstrate how Canon products could enhance and support their cause. For the first time, the public were then invited to vote for each of the finalists, where thousands of votes were cast.

Chief Executive Officer of Canon New Zealand, Kim Conner, says the grants acknowledge the enormous commitment, and sheer hard work, of organisations working at the grassroots to better the environment and their communities.

“Canon is proud to provide support to these worthy organisations and allow them to build and extend their projects using our range of specialised products,”

The winning projects include

• Community Grant: Hospice Wairarapa provides its patients and their families with enduring digital memories in the form of videos of photos.
• Environmental Grant: Project Jonah works to inspire New Zealanders by giving them the practical skills to protect whales and the oceans.
• Education Grant: Clarkville Primary School has partnered with Silverstream Reserve to promote plant regeneration and ultimately reintroduce mudfish to the reserve.

More information on the award recipients

Community Grant – Hospice Wairarapa Community Trust

Hospice Wairarapa is dedicated to providing its patients with the best possible care during their illness as well as providing their loved ones with supported bereavement.

One of 16 complimentary services the hospice provides is a program named Precious Memories, pairing patients with volunteer photographers to create a digital memory, leaving a bereavement legacy to their loved ones.

Suzie Adamson, General Manager at Hospice Wairarapa says they currently rely on the volunteers to provide photography equipment.

"The Precious Memories programme provides the patients in our care with the comfort of knowing that their families will have beautiful images to remember them by. We have filmed everything from a one year old’s first and only birthday to a video of a father speaking to his son at his wedding as he was too sick to travel."

The grant will provide the hospice with its own DSLR camera and printer with the cash component going towards framing the invaluable memories.

Education Grant – Clarkville School

Clarkville School, based in Kaiapoi, believes learning in ‘real world’ contexts is vital to equipping its students to build sustainable communities.

As part of this, Clarkville School has developed a community partnership with the local Silverstream Reserve which seeks to improve the ecosystem through extensive planting and providing a habitat for aquatic animals as well as birds and other wildlife. The ultimate goal is to reintroduce mudfish to the reserve.

Juliana Rae, Principal at Clarkville Primary School, says the students will use the Canon camera and camcorder to document the monitoring of the water, soil quality, plant regeneration and wildlife to help them determine when the mudfish can be reintroduced.

“We hope to partner with DoC and its mudfish regeneration program to ascertain when the conditions in the Reserve will support the survival of the mudfish,”

The students will use the information they gather to create interpretation panels around the reserve, providing the public with informative resources about the plant and animal species in the area.

Environmental Grant – Project Jonah

New Zealand has the highest whale stranding rate in the world and non-profit organisation, Project Jonah aims to provide rapid response emergency aid to stranded whales across New Zealand.

Project Jonah has trained thousands of New Zealand volunteers to rescue whales during these strandings. Training sessions are held around the country to transform volunteers into marine mammal medics.

Lousia Hawkes, Volunteer Manager at Project Jonah says the grant will purchase a projector for the training courses, allowing 400 volunteers to be trained every summer.

“When attending strandings, rapid response is crucial. Binoculars will allow our staff to spot stranded mammals and a camera will enable us to take dorsal fin ID photos, aiding New Zealand researchers with identification, distribution and migration studies.”

The cameras will also allow Project Jonah to document the work it does and share them online, maintaining a social media account to share its stories and reach potential supporters.

Laura Barrett
Corporate Communications
Canon New Zealand
E: laura.b@canon.co.nz
T: +64 9 926 9352
M: +64 21 713 647