The Otago Community Trust is funding the cultivation of flavoursome fruit and lifelong learners in Dunedin.
The Greater Green Island Community Network received $10,000 in the trust’s September funding round.
Trust chief executive Barbara Bridger said the money was to assist with community projects in the Green Island area, including the printing and distribution of a community newsletter, the purchase of fruit trees for the Green Island Community Garden, and to hold various community events.
Network worker Amanda Reid said the funding was ‘‘awesome’’ and would allow the network to continue supporting the community.
‘‘It is very exciting.’
Garden co-ordinator Marion Thomas said the funding for the roughly 0.4ha garden in Shand St was ‘‘fantastic’’.
Some of the money would be used to buy apple, pear and plum trees, she said.
Mrs Bridger said the network was doing ‘‘a wonderful job in fostering stronger community bonds’’ and was ‘‘making connections and becoming selfreliant and responsive’’.
The trust gave $310,000 from its Learning Impact Innovation Fund to the ‘‘hills cluster project’’, a pilot project involving Balmacewen Intermediate, Halfway Bush School, Kaikorai Primary School, Maori Hill School and Wakari School.
The fund was launched on April 1 with the aim of encouraging new thinking and collaboration.
The trust was ‘‘delighted’’ to be supporting the schools initiative, Mrs Bridger said.
Kaikorai Primary School principal Simon Clarke said the project aimed to equip pupils with ‘‘future-focused skills and attitudes’’, which would make them ‘‘successful lifelong learners’’.
Pupils would learn by ‘‘investigating and responding to authentic challenges’’.
The fund would provide the right blend of hands-on resources for pupils and professional development opportunities for the 85 teachers in the cluster, Mr Clarke said.
Other recipients in Dunedin in the funding round were the Dunedin Lawn Bowls Stadium, $25,000; Dunedin Returned Services Assn, $25,000; Hearing Association Dunedin Branch Inc, $5000; Surf Life Saving Otago Charitable Trust, $5000; Dunedin Tai Chi Club, $1000; Southern Youth Choir Trust, $1000; and Pioneer Opportunities & Resources Trust, $800.
SHAWN MCAVINUE@thestar.co.nz
