Koa Wilkes Memorial Fund
Koa Susan Wilkes was born in 1969 to parents Joan Hazelhurst and Owen Wilkes. Koa attended Tamariki School in 1980-1981. She had a difficult time at other schools but valued her time at Tamariki. Koa died on the 9th September 1990, at age 21.
After Koa’s death, her mother, Joan, contributed money to set up a memorial fund to be invested with the interest being used at staff discretion to support children’s attendance at off-site school activities.
Support from the Koa Wilkes Fund is not intended to replace or undermine the school’s current responsibilities under Ministry of Education Donations Scheme. At times, the funding for school activities received under this scheme will not cover all costs associated with off-site activities. It is intended the Koa Wilkes Fund could support individual children (e.g. with overnight trip accommodation costs) or for group activities if the Donations Scheme funding is exhausted for that year.
In previous years some families received financial support from the Fund to enable their children to participate in off-site school activities. However, the original intention that further contributions would be made to increase the Fund was not fully realized and for some years the Fund lay dormant. In recent times, there has been a renewed commitment by the Tamariki School community to seek further donations to grow the Fund so that, as originally intended, interest from the Fund can be used to support children’s participation in off-site activities. The Fund is now under the overall care of the Tamariki School Board of Trustees. The Tamariki School Society remains committed to promoting the Fund and working to increase its capital.