With buckets-full of Vitamin D in the atmosphere, we are being blessed with a superb Eastern Bay summer, it is the boost we have all needed to leave behind a tumultuous 2022-23 – and look firmly ahead to a healthy and productive 2024.

This week, Angela and I have been actively setting up the Foundation calendar of events for this year, to ensure we are able to cover our entire district and to also leave a wee space here and there for spontaneous innovation. There are some exciting opportunities on the horizon to help build resources in our communities, thanks to those with generous hearts and a long-term vision.

In 2024 our focus is on building and strengthening our communities, to create enough resilience to weather all manner of challenges, to breathe life into the aspirations of our people and to ensure our natural environment is centre stage – protecting vulnerable species, planting endemic trees and doing all we possibly can to safeguard our waterways.

If you are passionate about a cause in our community and are considering leaving a gift in your will, or in your lifetime, talk to me. I can make the process very simple, and you will be delighted at the benefits to be had, immediately and in the long term.

We hope you will consider partnering with our Foundation to make an impactful difference, by joining us in this quest.

Consider – the footsteps laid down in the past are the paving stones we stand on today. What are we collectively doing to create those paving stones for future generations?