Waimarino-Waiouru Youth Ambassadors from Ruapehu’s award winning Youth Council have held a working bee at the Raetihi Community Gardens as part of the NZ Youth Week.

Held every May, Youth Week is a nationwide festival of events designed to encourage young people to take on challenges, share ideas and focus on the positive aspects of being young.

Youth Council Liaison, Lauren Thompson said that the theme for this year’s Youth Week was "He wai hōhonu a mātou" (We are more than you see) and the Ambassadors wanted to create a project that would give back to the community and encourage others to get involved in helping out their town.

“Helping to ensure that the Raetihi Community Gardens will produce a bumper crop of winter vegetables for those in need was a great way of doing this.

The Youth Ambassadors put in a huge effort weeding and fertilising empty garden beds, planting seedlings for winter vegetables for the community and helping to dig a new compost area.

As part of helping with community education they are also putting up signage at the recycling station to encourage people to compost their food waste rather than sending it to the landfill,” she said.

Anyone interested in finding out more about what the Ruapehu Youth Council is up to or how they can get involved should check out their Facebook page or see ruapehudc.govt.nz

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