Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund recipients announced

Horizons Regional Council has awarded 13 grants to Enviroschools for environmental and sustainability projects. 

Sarah Williams Horizons Enviroschools Regional Coordinator says the Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund helps to support schools who are empowering their young people to engage and learn about the environment, and to take action on issues which are important to them.

 “The number and calibre of applications have increased significantly since we started offering this fund to our 78 Enviroschools in 2016-2017,” says Mrs Williams

“Although many Enviroschools have innovative ways to raise money to contribute to project costs, some projects may require a little more input.”

We received 19 applications from six of the seven districts in our region, seeking a total of just over $15,500.

“The initial fund available was only $7,000, and although we have had to make some tough decisions on who would get funded for this year, we have also re-allocated an extra $2,000 from the environmental education budget to support projects.”

We also managed to fund two additional projects through our Natural Resources and Partnership biodiversity programmes.

“Last year the common themes for funding were for shadehouse and greenhouse related projects, whereas this year most of the projects were related to outdoor enhancement.”

The 2020-21 funding through the Pat Kelly Enviroschools Fund has been awarded to:

• Manchester Street School (Manawatū): the creation of an outdoor music area made from recycled and upcycled materials
• Makino Kindergarten (Manawatū): raised garden beds to revamp their old bee friendly garden
• Barnardos ELC (Palmerston North): the purchase of water tanks for vege gardening and tamariki water play
• Parkland Kindergarten (Palmerston North): the purchase of raised vegetable gardens
• Hokowhitu School (Palmerston North): towards ongoing development of their outdoor classroom
• Linton Kindergarten (Palmerston North): replacing their old compost bins
• Carncot Independent School (Palmerston North): solar powered rainwater harvesting project
• Pukeokahu School (Rangitīkei): to purchase fruit and native trees for their te ngāhere enhancement
• Marton Childcare Centre (Rangitīkei): the purchase of a water tank
• Love and Learn Care and Education (Whanganui): for their collaborative community project and memorial garden
• Westmere School: for creating an art work for their nature walk project which reflects the culture of the school and community

Two projects funded through our Natural Resources and Partnerships biodiversity programme are:

• Ōhau School: for the purchase of traps. Students are setting up a trapping project in the bush block adjacent to the school for which they are kaitiaki.
• Mosston School: received funding for ‘Green One Hundred’, an initiative to regenerate the native bush in their school by infill planting with native trees. 

More information on the Enviroschools programme can be found at https://bit.ly/enviroschoolssnapshot