Our November Pop-up clean up down by the old Māngere
Bridge saw a fabulous turn-out of volunteers, thanks to support from Māngere
Bridge residents, Papatūānuku Marae and their Kai Oranga gardening course, as
well as Māngere Mountain Education Centre.
30 volunteers, adults and youngsters, pitched in with enthusiasm and
smiles and made short work of the area around the reserve and bridge, even
wading into the mud to retrieve rubbish lodged in the mangroves.
As usual, lots of broken glass and bottles were
collected, as well as single-use packaging and larger dumped items, including a wooden pallet
and a large plastic tray. In all, 17 bags
of rubbish were collected, to be disposed of by Auckland Council.
It was great to see lots of new faces alongside our
faithful, long-serving volunteers this time around. Ane Karika-Nuku from Mangere Mountain
Education Centre was excited to support Friends of the Farm’s work in this
area, as it aligns with the centre’s mission to be kaitiaki for our local environment. "It was a blast hanging out helping to tidy up. Thanks for this awesome event whānau", said Ane. The Kai Oranga gardening course from Papatūānuku Marae also enjoyed being involved with some hands-on mahi, caring
for the environment. As one participant
said “we can’t plant food until we’ve cleaned up the land”.
While these clean-ups may feel like a drop in the
ocean, in terms of the amount of rubbish that’s still out there, they’re always
a great opportunity to educate our young people about the importance of looking
after our environment. One youngster at the clean-up said he felt good to be
cleaning up the harbour and to be protecting the birds and sea life from
harm. These hands-on experiences will
stay with our children and hopefully influence the way they treat the
environment as they get older.
A huge thanks to all the wonderful people who gave
their time and energy to cleaning up around our harbour, especially those who
travelled from outside Māngere Bridge to join with us. "It was great to catch up with old friends and enjoy a good
laugh with new ones. There's so much to learn about our place and we get much more
done when we work together," said Frances, a local resident and member of
Friends of the Farm.
We look forward to working together again to care for
our beautiful moana!
