Congratulations to Gary Coughlan, our Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month for February 2022

Congratulations to Gary Coughlan, winner of our Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month for February.

Gary has been a resident of Long Bay, Auckland for over 40 years, and every evening he takes an hour to stroll Long Bay beach and nearby Okura Reserve with his trusty dog Jack.

Fed up with the increasing amounts of litter he saw, Gary began carrying a canvas supermarket bag and collecting bottles, cans and other trash he was coming across on his walk.

Sadly, the amount he has found has been staggering — in just an hour he can fill the sack several times over, and in just eight weeks he collected over 100 empty cans alone. It’s a pretty thankless job and one that, even in scenic Long Bay, he has to take some care with — he’s also found dirty nappies and a syringe with a needle in it.

Gary has taken extra steps by contacting his local media to try to raise awareness of the growing litter problem, and to get his community noticing and taking action.

For these reasons we reckon Gary is a deserving winner of Volunteer of the Month — we look forward to sharing more of Gary’s exploits in coming months.

Congratulations Gary! As this month’s Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month, Gary will receive a Keep New Zealand Beautiful merchandise pack and a Resene paint voucher – along with being automatically nominated for the Tidy Kiwi Award at our next Beautiful Awards! Plus, thanks to Stand Desk we have four desks to give away this year to our Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month winners – we’ll draw a winner for this every three months.

If you know someone doing great work keeping New Zealand beautiful, nominate them here — we draw a winner every month!