Last year, I was lucky enough to get selected to be a part of the BLAKE Inspire programme in Auckland. This programme is designed to inspire high school students to become environmental leaders and for them to be able to implement environmental actions in their own community. It was a week-long programme where we learnt things from mātauranga māori to exploring corporate sustainability all whilst being out in the Auckland city experiencing once in a lifetime opportunities. During my time on BLAKE Inspire we had to come up with a goal of something we were going to take back to our own community to help the environment we live in. My goal that I created was to run a rubbish cleanup by the OGHS Classroom by the Sea. 

I have grown up by the Otago Harbour my whole life and have seen an increase in rubbish surrounding the harbour over the years. This, along with the BLAKE Inspire programme, is what inspired me to run a rubbish clean up by the Classroom by the Sea. My hopeful outcome of this rubbish cleanup is that it can become a regular thing that the community does to help increase the water quality of the Otago Harbour. 

On Friday afternoon a group of us from the Otago Girls’ Enviroschools group went down to the Classroom by the Sea for the first rubbish cleanup of many. During this time it was low tide which helped us with our clean up to get the most rubbish out of the harbour in that area that we could. We managed to collect quite a bit of rubbish which is disappointing but will hopefully be the first step to decrease rubbish in the area and increase the water quality of the Otago Harbour.