2021 Greening Taupo Day
It was a town-wide celebration!
The first ever ‘Greening Taupō Day’ was held on 4th June 2021 and what a day it was! This was a town-wide celebration of Greening Taupō and Kids Greening Taupō. All of the work that is done by these two community groups, including the resources they share, are provided free of charge, so this was a chance for people to show their support and to give back. The goals of the event were to lift the profile of Greening Taupō and Kids Greening Taupō in the community, promote what they do, and fundraise at the same time.
With the help of the community, we well and truly achieved these goals!
Schools, Early Childhood Centres, Community Organisations & Local Businesses Come Together for a Common Goal
See what all of the education centres did here:
The ‘day’ that we had planned quickly turned into a week-long event. Taupō was buzzing with environmental initiatives, plantings, fundraising activities, green decorations, and people dressed in green could be found everywhere.
The ‘Love Taupō’ sign was even lit up in green for the week! Prizes provided by generous local businesses were up for grabs by schools and businesses that showed ‘Green Spirit’. Every local school, along with some rural schools and kindergartens sign up to join in. In total, 25 schools and ECE centres took part!
Taupō Intermediate took out the top prize of a $1000 restoration planting donated by Contact Energy. Waipahihi School and Upper Atiamuri School received prizes from Mitre 10 and really impressed judges with their conservation efforts. Town Centre Taupō ran their own competition and many businesses signed up to join in. There were fantastic green window displays all around town, staff dressed in green, and even green baking for sale. Spacecraft won the big prize, with Victoria's Cafe, The Source Bulk Foods, Kip McGrath, Get Set Events, and Huka Honey Hive taking out prizes too.
Many local businesses contributed to the success of this event, but several were integral to it. More FM promoted the event heavily, regularly interviewing us about the latest news on it. Korio Website Design & Digital Marketing donated lots of time to help promote the event and the sponsors. Quality Print also donated lots of time and resources to make the event successful. They even ran an art competition encouraging the children of Taupō to think about what they would like to see out their window in the future. Thousands of entries were received!
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Arbor Day Planting
This involved the community planting 4000 native trees on a previously weedy area of the roadside between the Taupo Golf Club and AC Baths.
The trees were provided by Taupō District Council and Trees that Count. Taupo District Council also spent a lot of time preparing the site, not to mention digging 4000 holes. There was a huge response from local businesses and organisations keen to be involved with running activities and providing food on the day. Trev Terry Marine cooked up 700 sausages and The Bistro supplied 300 cups of vegetable soup. Mynoke, an industrial scale worm farm took the paper cups to feed the worms, and sorted our waste on the day. There were representatives from community organisations such as Project Tongariro, DOC, Taupō District Council, Waikato Regional Council, The Police, Taupō Fire Brigade, Civil Defence, Life Education, Blue Light, Mynoke, Taupō for Tomorrow, Waikato Enviroschools, Forest and Bird, Predator Free Taupō, and Contact Energy running activities for the children who came along. Over 1000 people attended this day and enjoyed the range of activities, along with planting and mulching the trees. Classes from schools and ECE centres made their way to the planting site to much in alongside individuals and business representatives all with a common goal.
And schools and ECE centres that weren’t at the event were holding their own planting events at their schools and kindergartens. There were children taking part in conservation activities with trees being planted all over town!
