Appleby School pupil 10-year-old Elise Dallimore’s passion for keeping waterways clean has resulted in two major achievements.
“I love fish and I want to be a marine biologist when I grow up,” said 10-year-old Elise.
Between Elise and a fellow student, Jessie Henderson, they’ve managed to get the Tasman District Council to listen to their request and gain agreement for a sign to be erected to discourage littering at the Appleby Bridge Recreation Reserve.
But that wasn’t the only result getting Elise excited last week. Elise was chosen as the winner of a competition run in schools across the Top of the South. The trip includes flights to Auckland and an excursion to the Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve in Northland.
The annual Experiencing Marine Reserves, EMR, Poor Knights competition is a national programme for students to learn through experience about marine conservation.
Appleby School students took part in marine education lessons facilitated by Tasman Bay Guardians at Little Kaiteriteri and Cable Bay in February. From those lessons, the realization came that the Waimea River on their doorstep runs into that very marine environment they’d been studying.
The students have been analysing and cleaning their stretch of the Waimea River which is an easy walk from the school and reaches to the Appleby Bridge Recreation Reserve, next to the Waimea River bridge.
The most important result out of the project, says teacher Talia Ryan, is that students have realised they want to do more and have decided to become kaitiaki (guardians) of that stretch of river.
“They’re forming relationships with the river and caring for this living thing for the future,” says Appleby School principal Justin Neal.
They have committed to Appleby School doing litter pick-ups every term from now on and Tasman Bay Guardians, who coordinated the school’s marine education trips, are making plans to assist them with the river’s continued care and monitoring.
Elise and Jessie have been stand-outs in the process.