Caroline Williams is a woman in her eighties who loves our natural environment and has been interested in caring for it and enhancing the living cloak of Aotearoa for a long time. She was formerly involved with Forest and Bird but has now chosen to donate trees because she is no longer physically capable of engaging in active conservation work.
Caroline chose to donate trees to A Rocha Wellington projects because of A Rocha’s Christian kaupapa; she likes that A Rocha is caring for God’s creation and community. Her first donations went to A Rocha projects in the Kapiti area and in February 2024 Irene Parminter arranged for Caroline to visit some of the trees she had donated. She enjoyed the day out and was impressed by the dedication and commitment of A Rocha members to the work of conservation and restoration of native bush areas.
Irene suggested to Caroline that in future she might like to donate to help fund tree purchases for A Rocha ‘s Wellington local group joint project with the Kopua Associates at the Cistercian Monastery at Kopua. Caroline is excited to be contributing to this project in a communal space at the monastery and more so as the project team are working to have a Queen Elizabeth II National Trust covenant placed on the land which they are restoring. She also sees the restoration work at Kopua as enhancing the experiences of retreatants by providing an environment of serenity and peacefulness.
Caroline has every intention of continuing her donations as long as she is financially able to do so and hopes that her example will encourage others to do the same.
Thank you, Caroline!
– Story contributed by Helen Bathurst from A Rocha’s Wellington Local Group.
