SOLUTION, NOT POLLUTION
‘‘Be a part of the solution and not the pollution’’, was the mantra of three beach-cleaning girls at the weekend.
Nikyla Beare, 10, Ellie Smith, 10, and Sarah Wells, 11, have spearheaded a series of rubbish clean-ups over the past couple of weeks and Nga¯ motu Beach in New Plymouth was the focus of Saturday’s efforts.
The Year 6 trio from Frankley School had been working as a team for a school unit titled Passion Projects, and were so dedicated to the cause they had no problem giving up the first day of their school holidays.
‘‘We didn’t really like the fact that animals were, like, dying in the sea from our rubbish,’’ Beare said.
‘‘People don’t realise how much rubbish there actually is around New Plymouth,’’ said Wells.
Last weekend, the girls scoured both East End Beach and Kawaroa Park for litter and managed to fill about eight big black rubbish bags.
Smith said Kawaroa Park had by far been the worst.
‘‘We thought it was really clean but as soon as we stepped inside the bush, like, take five steps in and there’s heaps of rubbish.’’
As part of the project the girls were required to co-ordinate and promote the clean-up. They worked with the New Plymouth District Council, which would sort the collected rubbish, and advertised for volunteers to help in their efforts.
On Saturday, about 15 people from the community turned up to lend a hand.
Teacher Brendon Anderson said the project was a good learning curve for his students.
‘‘They’ve got a good sense of of social action and if we can instil that into 10 and 11 year olds now imagine what they can do when they are older,’’ he said.
Other projects included students making a Minecraft version of the school, building skateramps for the school, learning how to sew to create toys for the hospital and cooking soup for the Salvation Army.