John McGlashan College pupils spent Friday last week cleaning up Smaill’s and Tomahawk beaches.
Keep Dunedin Beautiful comprises volunteers committed to projects to encourage citizens to take pride in and care for their environment.
Keep Dunedin Beautiful coordinator Darlene Thomson said she was impressed with the number of young people volunteering recently and wanted to draw attention to their efforts.
As part of a school project, three 12-year-old boys from Balmacewan Intermediate School contacted Mrs Thomson and told her they wanted to do something which made a difference to the environment.
‘‘I armed them with bags and gloves and they cleaned up rubbish from the Mount Cargill walkway,'' Mrs Thomson said.
‘‘That same week - on Remembrance Day - 30 or so teenagers from the Dunedin Cadet Unit got together and cleaned up Portsmouth Dr and filled more than 50 large bags of rubbish.''
Mrs Thomson said the following week, members of the South Life Church approached her to find out how they too could help to beautify the city in some way.
As a result, nearly 50 teenagers from South Life Church planted more than 300 trees for the River Estuary Care group and cleaned up around that area [Waikouaiti-Karitane] last Saturday, while on Friday last week a group of pupils from John McGlashan College took part in a clean-up of Tomahawk and Smaill's beaches.
‘‘The committee are really heartened by the community spirit and enthusiasm shown by these youths. We've been blown away, really.''
Mrs Thomson said positive interest from community groups was common during Keep Dunedin Beautiful's annual clean-up week but it was unusual for there to be so much community interest at other times of the year.
‘‘This time, it's not us going to them, it's them coming to us,'' she said.
‘‘It's not often we get this sort of interest without having to tap them on the shoulder.''
