Pesky possums beware! The biennial Whakamarama School Possum Hunt and Family Fun Day is back again.

After a resounding success in 2013, the fundraising event is once again hoping to raise money that the rural school so desperately needs.

Principal Natasha Greatorex playing possum watched hunted by Mike Carter and a crew of pupils. Billy Adams, Shanae, Quin and Anton Pennell, Shay and Luke Hardyment and Matthew Carter. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

'We've got 33 students, it's a three-teacher school, and we receive little government funding,” says event co-organiser and parent Karla Pennell.

'The event is great because all the kids and their parents get behind it - it has a real community feel.”

One of the last remaining 'traditionally rural schools”, where classrooms still have fire burners and the kids help to get firewood, Whakamarara's fundraiser is the pinnacle event of the year.

It sees teams head out on a four-day hunt to capture as many possums as possible, by either trapping or shooting, and bring them back for the fun day and prize giving on Sunday, August 23. Awards are handed out to the teams, with titles such as Most Possums, Heaviest Possum and the Dirtiest Vehicle up for grabs.

'I'm not sure what the heaviest possum has been,” admits Karla, 'but on a good year when it doesn't rain and the possums have been gorging themselves, they can get quite big!”

The fur of the possum is then plucked and sold, at about $100 a kilogram, with all funds going back into the school. The possum bodies are buried or taken for dog food by the hunters.

'Last event we got about 100, which was quite low,” says Karla. 'That's why we hold the event every second year, to try to get the numbers up first.”

Karla says pest control is a reality of rural life. 'It's an environmentally friendly fundraiser,” she says. 'They are a pest and have to be controlled as they cause so much damage.

'Possums are a major threat to the health and well-being of our forests.”

The family fun day begins at 10am on August 23 at Whakamarama School, with a bouncy castle, auction and entertainment for all to enjoy.

For more information please call the school on: 07 552 5204 or visit: www.whakamarama.school.nz