Cleaning up and giving back

Judith Somerville (far left) with today’s clean-up crew from Tauranga Girls’ College. Photos: Ryan Wood.

It's that time of year again, when exams are over, and junior students at high schools need something to keep them occupied.

So today at Tauranga Girls' College a group of Year 9 students are picking up rubbish.

They're starting down in ‘The Gully', aka the Fraser Cove Ministry of Education land behind the school, before moving on to the Fraser Cove estuary.

It might sound dull, particularly when some of the other end-of-year activities include visiting Hamilton Zoo or the Rotorua luge. But the twenty-odd girls taking part don't seem to mind.

'We just thought it would be nice to do something good for the community,” says Angela Hogg. She's an old hand at environmental clean-ups, having done something similar out at Pyes Pa last year with Tauranga Intermediate.

For Alyssa Crenfeldt, spending a sunny morning cleaning up is actually 'preferable to the luge.”

She says they've been learning a lot about food waste and recycling in Science, and part of their class project involves creating awareness around waste and how we as a society can reduce it.

Year 9 Dean Judith Somerville says picking up rubbish is never usually seen as something attractive to do, but she's surprised with the enthusiasm the girls have shown.

'Most of the girls come from this area, but don't necessarily ‘pay back' to it. So that's what we're doing today.”

She says the school recently got permission for a portable ‘environmental' classroom, which will serve as a base for their environmental group and its activities.

The clean-up is sponsored by Burger King Fraser Cove, for which Judith is grateful.

'They've been very generous.”

The beautiful gully behind Tauranga Girls' College.Photo: Ryan Wood.

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