Broadford’s secondary college and primary school students volunteered for a Clean Up Australia Day event on June 16, as part of the college’s Vocational Major students’ sustainability project.
Students met at Harley Hammond Reserve in Broadford, separating into eight groups of year 11, 12 and grade six students to clean up rubbish in Broadford.
VCE Vocational Major, VM, teacher Kerry Reardon said the students registered for a Clean Up Australia Day event in March.
“They tried to coordinate with the primary school and organised it themselves. They’ve had to work their way through all our planning processes at school,” she said.
“We talked about which areas in Broadford might be the best to target, being mindful of health and safety issues. They came up with eight sections they thought were worth targeting.
“They were allocated a group of primary school students to walk around with collecting rubbish and talking to, just spending time and creating a sense of community, bonding and empowerment while also looking at the issue of sustainability and recycling.”
Student Tara Gibson said the year 12 students had learnt from setbacks during the process, and had invited year 11 students to help organise the event.
“We got the year sixes from Broadford Primary School to help out as they were learning how much rubbish is in a classroom and we thought we’d get them involved to help the environment by cleaning up rubbish,” she said.
Bunnings Seymour donated $180 worth of hi-vis vests and gloves for the clean-up.
Donated prizes including vouchers to McDonalds, Broadford’s Duck Inn Café and Bits and Bargains, were given to students who collected the most rubbish.
Tara said the students were grateful for a donation of three large boxes of lollies from Nestle, which were used to create 100 lolly bags and decorated with handwritten jokes, fun facts about recycling and pictures to hand out after the clean-up.
“We’ve got eight teachers here who have given up time so this could go ahead for the kids, and they’ve done an awesome job of coming together at such a busy time of the year,” Ms Reardon said.
The year 12 students have been looking at recycling and sustainability in the Mitchell Shire and have been working with Mitchell Shire Council waste management education officer Grace Davis-Williams since late last year.
“We’re still sending about 10,000 tonnes of rubbish a year to landfill and only recycling about 4000 tonnes. The idea is to promote awareness on those issues,” Ms Reardon said.
“The students have already gone down to the primary school to run a workshop presentation they put together. They’ve also got bins donated to the school from the council to start a recycling program at the school so that’s the next part of this.”
The college is also hosting a competition to create a design to decorate the bins.
