HARTIES CRISIS: Aurora girls inspire others to lend a hand
SUNDOWNER — Two Aurora Primary School girls care so much about the environment that they have inspired their whole school to join them.
Amelia (7) and Nicola Blazeby (10) of Curro Aurora Primary School have started a bottle drive at their school to help with the hyacinth problem at Hartbeespoort Dam.
The girls love reading Randburg Sun, and when they were browsing through the paper one day, they stumbled across a cause they thought their whole school could get involved in.
Nicola is proud of her and her sister’s initiative saying, “Half of the kids can’t even believe that we organised this ourselves. We have just moved here from Durban and we love to go fishing with our uncle at Harties. But if the hyacinth takes over the dam, we won’t be able to go fishing anymore.”
With help from their mom Pamela Blazeby the girls were able to gain momentum behind their project.
Blazeby said, “There are about 150 bottles collected so far, but we’re hoping to get to around 2 000 by next Friday. Hopefully, if we can get the word out, we can get more parents and kids involved.”
Little Amelia explained what they aim to do with the bottles.
“When we take the bottles to the dam, we will put a net on them, then put them into the water to stop the hyacinths from growing. We have our whole family pitching in to donate bottles, and they are also going to help take labels off the bottles.”
School principal Christiaan Maree spoke of the girl’s amazing spirit saying, “I am so proud of the girls… I cannot believe that at their age they are already aware of the environmental challenges that we are facing. I know that they will take this caring spirit through life, and I can see a bright future ahead of them.”
This is not the first time that Amelia and Nicola have championed a cause. Last year in Durban, they helped their school raise funds for a quadriplegic association, sewing bags that raised over R2 000 for new wheelchairs.
Caxton Local Media has offered various offices in the Gauteng area as collection points for these bottles.
Should you wish to donate bottles, please drop them off at one of the following Caxton Local Media offices:
1187 Cornelius Street, Weltevreden Park
368 Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall Park
61 Van der Walt Road, Brakpan
48 5th Avenue, Springs
20 Sydney Road, Boksburg
Corner 14th Avenue and O’Reilly Merry Street, Benoni
1 Eaton Terrace, Terrace Building, Alberton
126 Monument Road, Kempton Park
25 Main Road, Fishers Hill, Germiston
Shop 18A Greenstone Crescent, Greenstone Hill
32 Orpen Avenue, Lydiana
Corner General Pienaar and Ham streets, Witpoortjie
The public can also get involved by making monetary donations towards the rehabilitation project.
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