Last Thursday night we had the opportunity to attend the Zero Waste Awards as Sponsors for the Cultural Connection Category! This category celebrates: “individuals or groups ‘keeping it local’ using culturally appropriate approaches to educate, inspire and care for their communities to reduce waste”.

Congratulations to the winners of our award presented by our CEO Saia Latu:

WINNERS: S Double S Services

S Double S Services is on a mission to get more families on bikes through its free bike refurbishing and donation scheme for local Ōtara kids and families. Every Friday and Saturday for the past year they have been offering a free bike fix clinic too, and since March 2021, they have already repaired 1,800 bikes!

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Tessie Chen and Lily Lin, Si Le Joy School

Teaching Mandarin to Chinese children. Through their teaching, they encourage their students, the student’s families, and the wider community to help the environment.

 

We had so much fun standing tall alongside other amazing people making changes in creating a circular economy – building a future, through restoring the past! An award that will remain close to our hearts and was an amazing moment to witness was the “Rangatahi Leadership Award”. Seeing the tamariki being so proud and innovative in their creations as a contribution to creating a circular economy.

Tania Pouwhare – The strong wise wahine that you are, gifted us with her vision woven between the lines of truth and mana as the guest speaker at these awards. The words that you speak through your experience of living it, speak volumes through our brown tamariki, and for that, we are so thankful to stand with you – In hopes that we can (re)claim/(re)shape the narrative for our future Māori and Pasifika change makers as our Tupuna did for us! Many thanks to Ana Davison and EcoMatters for the beautiful event! Every year you surprise us with an amazing awards ceremony filled with inspiration and celebration! Massive congratulations to The ReCreators for the beautiful taonga you made for all winners, your mahi is remarkable from the process of making it with pre-loved materials to the end product you produce!

One last congratulation to all winners, we look forward to seeing more of the amazing moves you are continuing to make!