Not long after Bill Boyd commenced his term as Rotary International President on 1 July 2006, members of the Rotary Club of Pakuranga Incorporated decided to mark the occasion by the formation of a charitable trust. It was decided to include the name of Bill’s wife Lorna in the name of the Trust, as she had played an integral part in Bill’s Rotary journey.

The Bill and Lorna Boyd Charitable Trust deed was executed on the 18th December 2006 by the Club as settlor and Bill and Lorna, and past DG’s Noel Holyoake, Ross Craig and Tony Fortune, as inaugural trustees.
The Trust benefited from several early donations and in March 2008 was registered as a charity under the Charities Act 2005. Besides Bill and Lorna, Noel Holyoake (“chairperson”) Tony Fortune, Bill Duncan ( secretary) and Russell Toplis are the current trustees.

The objects of the Trust are to assist New Zealand Rotary Club’s and other service organisations with funding for specific charitable purposes in New Zealand and for such other charitable purposes in New Zealand as the Trustees may decide.

INAUGURAL PROJECT

When asked what he thought the most pressing needs for the world were, Bill, who had been traveling the world for Rotary for some time, quickly responded, “education and water”. Bill had also been interested in a Rotary project operating in the United Kingdom involving illustrated dictionaries.
The Trustees did not take much persuading that the distribution of the Harper Collins Usborne Illustrated English dictionaries through Rotary Clubs to year 4 children in New Zealand low decile schools, was the way to help reduce a growing literacy problem.

To date the Trust has, through Rotary Clubs, distributed over 200,000 dictionaries to low decile schools throughout New Zealand with a retail value in excess of $5million.