A New Chapter for Penny's Legacy
Give a Trap began with Penny Willocks' vision of making it easy for anyone to support predator control and protect New Zealand's native wildlife.
Since launching Give a Trap in 2022, more than 2,200 traps have been distributed to more than 120 community trapping organisations.
For the last three years Forest & Bird helped steward the Give a Trap initiative but Penny's family and friends saw an opportunity to create an even greater long-term impact.
That's why they've founded the Give a Trap Charitable Trust – an independent charitable trust dedicated to expanding Penny's vision.
Today, the Give a Trap Charitable Trust is leading Give a Trap. Penny's legacy remains at the heart of it all, with the Trust dedicated to creating new opportunities for growth, partnership and community impact across Aotearoa.
About Give a Trap
Give a Trap's mission is to empower Kiwis from all walks of life to get involved with the Predator Free 2050 mission. We have experienced first-hand the pain of wanting to help out, but not knowing how to do it, or even how to get started. Through Give a Trap, it's easy for you to help make New Zealand predator free.
Use our platform to find a group near you that needs support. Give a trap to the group and we'll organise the supply and delivery of the trap directly to the group. We'll keep an eye on the process to ensure everything goes smoothly. Once the group receive your gift, they'll put it to work.
Any gift you make through Give a Trap is used to cover the cost of purchasing the selected trap, shipping it to your nominated group, and a very small contribution goes towards the costs of running the platform.
Penny's Story
Penny Willocks – adventure-racer, traveller, tramper, Radiation Therapist, and friend to many people around the world.
A trip to North Canterbury's Island Hills Station in 2020 introduced Penny to the predator-free movement. She wanted to buy and donate some traps but she couldn't gift any to Island Hills, or any other predator-control program, without having to get the traps there herself. Sadly, a few months later, Penny was diagnosed with cancer.
When Penny died in 2021, her family sent out a message 'Don't send flowers, buy a predator trap'. The response was 'Love to, but what do we do with it once we have it?'
At the same time as hearing this response we were considering how to best honour Penny's decision to bequest a significant amount of money to a predator-free group. It left us reflecting on how hard it was to buy traps and give them to a group, yet there were lots of groups looking for support.
So Penny's vision grew from one person giving to one group, to encouraging many people to give to many groups. How could we find a way for people who believed in the Predator-Free 2050 challenge, but were not in a position to set and monitor traps themselves, to contribute to the cause?
The response was overwhelming. People got excited about the possibilities and how they could contribute.
Fast forward to today we have put Penny's vision into practice. The establishment of the Give a Trap Charitable Trust is going to enable us to grow this movement even further.
So please, Give a Trap® – because getting rid of predators is the right thing to do. Penny would be chuffed with your support.
The weekend that started it all. Penny Willocks with friends at Island Hills Station in 2020.
Our birds need you!
Our native species are relying on US to take ACTION, NOW! Before it's too late.
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