Hamilton kids hit the gullies
It’s not everyday at school that you get to plant a tree in the middle of your classroom.
That’s what Daniel Ngyuen, a year five at Marian Catholic school, did this week. His class, room 12, has an outdoor classroom in the gully next to the school tied in with the Kids in Nature program run by Hamilton City Council.
The decision to plant some trees made perfect sense to Daniel.
“I think it’s important we look after nature because there wouldn’t be air otherwise because leaves make air,” Daniel said.
Kids in Nature, sponsored by Ebbett Toyota, aims to increase the city’s vegetation from 2% to 10% whilst simultaneously helping Hamilton kids learn more about nature.
Ebbett Toyota CEO Tony Coutinho said it’s not just a financial sponsorship Toyota is providing; they’re really getting into it.
“Our staff and my wife are getting involved in the tree planting soon.
“We’ve also got our community movers that we’ve offered, and if there’s ever a one-off thing where they need help we’ll do what we can.”
As a businessman, Coutinho was keen to snap up the opportunity to sponsor Kids in Nature, as he was impressed with the clear strategy council had laid out.
“I think they’re associated with 20 schools now. They’re working on the generation which is going to count the most.
“And as a business person what I liked was that they’ve set themselves targets.”
“At first I thought that 2% vegetation to 10% sounded like a pretty lofty ambition. But they talked us through how Hamilton has all these gullies, and we realised we do actually have a unique opportunity to actually pull it off.”
Hamilton City Council’s city investment director Lisa Topcsov said corporate partners are “critical” to council.
“Sometimes it’s as simple as being able to connect them to something their business or organisation is passionate about and finding ways we can do more together.”
Aimee Nooyen, council’s community restoration adviser, guided Marian Catholic’s room 12 through planting makomako (wineberry) trees and rangiora trees on Wednesday.
She’s running the program, where schools from kindergarten to high schools can learn not only how to plant trees, but how to collect their seeds and grow them, how to identify pests, and the lifecycle and purpose of bees.