4 Aug 2023 Congratulations to our Tidy Kiwi Volunteers of the Month for July: Luca and Harley Evans, two Auckland brothers doing great work for the environment through our citizen science programmes! Both are students of Saint Kentigern, with Harley (year 8 at the Boys’ School) completing regular Backyard Battle surveys with his brother Luca (year 11 at the College). Both of them also complete additional weekly clean-ups on top of their citizen science surveys – including some which contribute to their Gold Service and Silver Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Both boys are completing three Backyard Battles over a wintery 6 month period from April to October, with most of their litter collection occurring at Orakei Domain, a busy local carpark and nearby sportsgrounds. During the Battles and their weekly clean ups, they’ve collected and documented a huge variety of items – from the typical bottles and fast food packages you would expect to find at busy public areas, to whole bags of household waste and even drug paraphernalia (their father was able to safely dispose of these for them). With these items collected and recorded as part of a Backyard Battle, they’re adding to our citizen science database to help create a better understanding of litter’s pathway across our land. The most unusual item they found was a box of household items near the carpark, which included school reports from two boys attending St Kentigern Boys’ School in 1964 – nearly 60 years before Harley and Luca. A strange coincidence! The school now has these in their archive, and of course all other collected litter has been safely sorted and disposed of. Congratulations! As the July Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month, both Luca and Harley will receive a Keep New Zealand Beautiful merchandise pack and a Resene paint voucher for any beautification efforts, as well as being entered into this year’s Beautiful Awards. Know someone keeping New Zealand beautiful? Simply nominate them to become a Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month here. Share this page
