Big Appleton Park clean-up

Scouts (including Keas and Cubs) and Girl Guides (including Pippins and Brownies) invaded Karori’s Appleton Park on 11 June to undertake a massive clean-up.

This CUP event (Clean Up and Plant) was organised by the Karori Lions, aimed at increasing environmental knowledge and responsibility in young people, while they had fun outdoors, doing something really useful.

On a cracker Wellington winter day, around 100 people, including Scout and Guide leaders, parents, Lions and friends arrived to enjoy the fine weather and do some good hands-on work.

The Lions organised delivery of around 100 native plants through the Wellington City Council, which were enthusiastically planted along a portion of the embankment at Appleton Park, once a mammoth weeding effort had been completed.

Refreshments were enjoyed, and each young person took home an envelope with information on how to plant a tree, a laminated card reflecting a “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” theme, and a personalised card where they could pledge their commitment to supporting the environment.

“This was our second CUP event at Appleton Park, and we are starting to make a real difference there,” the event’s organiser and Karori Lion Trevor Anders says.

“The planting from last September has taken well, and we expect the same from this planting.

“My favourites are the kahikateas. I like to think of them growing strong and ever taller over the next hundred years and beyond.”

The notoriously boggy ground of Appleton Park proved no deterrent to the young enthusiasts, especially to those wearing gumboots, but the degree to which the ground was churned up around the working area could well be a pointer for the council to address the need for better drainage of the park.

“We are really grateful to those Scout and Guide leaders and parents who got stuck in to do the hard work and lead our young people by example,” Trevor adds.

“That’s what those organisations are all about, just like Lions is about community service and humanitarian relief. We are thrilled to be able to work together with them.”