Rebekah Enspires to make change

A Bay of Plenty Polytechnic student has won first prize in the Enspire Youth Video Challenge awards, and landed a $2000 project grant in the process.

Rebekah Richards' video, titled ‘There's a Problem in our Backyard', secured the funds for the Mauao Area Wildlife Trust to increase pest control efforts at Moturiki (Leisure) Island in Mount Maunganui.


Rebekah Richards receives her prize from Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor David Love. Photo: Supplied.

The 20-year-old Marine Studies student's film (see below) makes use of puppets to capture the public's attention and delivers a strong environmental action message.

'I've been doing volunteer work with native birds in the Mauao area since 2008,” says Rebekah, 'and got involved with caring for little blue penguins after the Rena oil spill.

'I've wanted to get into film making for a while now and thought the competition was a perfect opportunity to do that.”

The Enspire Challenge was a joint initiative by Tauranga City, Western Bay of Plenty and Bay of Plenty Regional Councils to discover what environmental change young locals most want to see.

The project was also aimed at encouraging more people to get involved in caring for the land, water and wildlife around the region.

Rebekah's winning video will be played to an audience of 1000 attendees at the upcoming Tedx Tauranga event on July 25.

Second place was awarded to Hannah Skelton, Liam Burn and Sophie Thomas from Aquinas College for their team entry titled ‘Enspire Ted Remix', which encouraged people to create a better tomorrow by taking 30 simple actions in 30 days.

Another team, formed by Gurpreet Dhoat and Jahdiel Thomas, took third place. Their video, titled ‘Human vs Earth', brought attention to the everyday acts that young people are carrying out that contribute to global warming.

Runner-up prizes were awarded to three other entries that looked at how local people want to be able to enjoy their natural areas at Ōmokoroa, Katikati and Waikareao Estuary.

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