The Collect-a-Can National Schools Competition recently kicked off, giving schools a new opportunity to raise additional funds and help clean their environment. The Gereformeerde Dirk Postma Kindergarten in Waverley has taught 33 toddlers a valuable lesson in recycling and taking care of the environment. Their school was recently awarded R25 000 at the Collect-a-Can prize-giving ceremony for their hard work during 2013.
Dirk Postma collected 14 184 cans per toddler over the course of the year, winning themselves first prize in Category Two (a category for smaller schools) of Collect-a-Can’s National Schools Competition in the Pretoria and North West region.
Schools that registered for the Collect-a-Can National Schools Competition were encouraged to get their pupils involved by collecting as many cans as possible to win great prizes. Prizes were awarded to the schools that collected the most cans per month, as well as the most cans for the year. The current project organiser at the Gereformeerde Dirk Postma Kindergarten, Christina Bakker, was excited about this year’s competition. “We enter every year because it is a great way to teach the children about our responsibility to take care of the earth,” Bakker said.
She believes that the competition is an opportunity for all schools to teach their children about the importance of recycling and also helps the schools financially in terms of the prize money up for grabs. Should Dirk Postma win again, they plan to build more classrooms for the pupils.
While entering the competition can prove very rewarding, it is not without its challenges. It involves a lot of hard work and organisation. “We have the best parents and children. Most of them helped us to collect the cans,” Bakker explains.
The school organises talks about civil duties and responsibilities every year in order to get the pupils involved. “Most of our children are three to six years old and even though they are young, they understand why it is important to recycle and are very eager to help collect the cans,” she said. The kindergarten is determined to collect even more cans this year. “We want to get more parents involved and collect more cans than ever before,” an excited Bakker said.
The school has been participating in the Collect-a-Can National Schools Competition since 1995 and have won different prizes each year. As long-time participants, Dirk Postma would like to challenge other schools to enter this year, to contribute what they can to help protect the environment – every recycled can counts. Enquiries: The Collect-a-Can head office on 011-466-2939 or www.collectacan.co.za.
