One of the 3 founding trustees of the Kapiti Loss & Grief Centre, David Rigg, stepped down from the Trust at last week’s meeting having been there since its inception. His shoes will be hard to fill.
It is a great loss, to lose David the ’go-to’ man from our Charitable trust. David did the hard graft pulling together all the documents, the legal details and registrations to get Charitable Trust status. When I first saw the need to develop from our more simple ‘Bereavement Care Service’ basically, follow-up support for after funerals. It soon became apparent the ‘needs’ were growing and a wider range of options were required than just the Funeral Home Support Service and what it could provide.
A charitable trust looked like the obvious answer to be able to apply for funding for running support groups, subsidised professional counselling and having a physical ‘place’ that was separate from the Funeral Home, David made this happen. He worked tirelessly and we finally had the centre up and running just after the first lockdown in 2020, which saw a group of volunteer support workers and trustees grow into 3 counsellors and many add-on services such as Suicide support groups; weekly Bereavement support groups, one-on-one subsidised counselling, Bereavement Companioning support, and regular professional and community seminars.
David did the background ‘hard lifting’, and even though it was ‘Our dream’ (my wife Merryn and I, also founding trustees) it was David who made it happen. Kapiti Coast Funeral Home still supports the charity with many thousands of dollars. Still, because of David, and many others, the service as a charitable trust, is able to cater to so many more members of the community, not just funeral clients.
As David steps away to enjoy less work and more retirement activities we wish him well, God’s blessings on all he puts his hand to. He will always be a foundational part of the Loss & Grief Centre Kapiti.
PS –The space David has left has been replaced with 2 new trustees!!
