A new endowment fund designed to benefit Te Kura O Tititea Mount Aspiring College (MAC) students has gotten off to a great start with a generous donation by a local trust.

The Elsie & Ray Armstrong Charitable Trust has announced a grant of $100,000 to ‘seed’ Mt Aspiring College (MAC) Foundation’s Endowment Fund.

MAC Foundation chair Matt Williams said he was thrilled to receive the grant.

“The foundation has just launched its endowment fund to create long term sustainable financial returns for the benefit of the school,” Matt said.

“This initial grant from the Armstrong Trust is extremely generous and gives us enviable momentum towards achieving our initial goal of a $1M fund.”

MAC relies on additional funding in order to keep costs to students and their families down.

The endowment fund will help support the costs associated with things like sports tournaments, school uniforms and the like. 

It was a good match for the Armstrong Trust, which exists to help those in the Upper Clutha who are disadvantaged and need extra assistance, Armstrong Trust trustee Simon Telfer said.

“We have been in discussions with the MAC Foundation over the last few months,” he said.

We…appreciate their hard work in supporting school whānau with the costs of uniforms, devices, camp fees and health services both now and for generations to come.”

MAC principal Nicola Jacobsen said the donation by the Armstrong Trust was a remarkable contribution.

It’s “not something a principal gets to experience every day,” she said.

Deliberations by the Armstrong Trust for their usual annual granting process has begun and this year’s applicants will be informed of the trustee’s decisions next week.

PHOTO: Supplied