Students sew sew about environment
A class at Atawhai’s Clifton Terrace School have got it in the bag when it comes to helping the environment.
Teacher Meghan Jamieson said her Room 14 students are ‘‘loving’’ a new project making reusable Boomerang Bags for shoppers at their local Four Square store.
‘‘We have been doing some work on looking at the damage plastic, especially single-use plastic bags, does to the environment,’’ she said.
‘‘The children were particularly concerned about the sea life, especially turtles, so we wanted something where we could actually make a difference.’’
Jamieson heard about Boomerang Bags – reusable cloth bags shoppers can borrow from supermarkets, use for their shopping, and then return.
‘‘I approached Mark [Paton] down at the Atawhai Four Square and he was really keen to have them.
‘‘I made contact with the lady from the Boomerang Bags and we’ve gone from there.’’
Boomerang Bags co-ordinator Lani Bee had organised volunteers and sourced donated fabric, and five people helped the year three and four students assemble their first round of bags last week.
‘‘The children have been cutting fabric, ironing, drawing designs on the bags, and with the help of the adults, sewing the bags up,’’ Jamieson said.
Students will make two bags – one they could keep, and the other to be donated to the Four Square.
There were 25 children in the class and they’d all completed their first bag and would begin work on their second bag this week.
They ‘‘loved’’ getting to make something that made a difference, Jamieson said. ‘‘They’re full of pride that they’ll go to the Four Square store and see people using their bags.’’
The bags were made of donated fabric that would have otherwise been thrown out – be it old sheets, duvets, or even curtains.
‘‘So not only are we making reusable bags, we’re repurposing fabric that would otherwise have gone to the landfill,’’ she said.
Jamieson hoped the bags would be in store and available for shoppers to use within the next couple of weeks.