Pop-up Clean up (Nov 2017)

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!