$14,000 to Schools for Shade

Media Release – Farmlands Trading Society Ltd

15 March 2011

$14,000 to Schools for Shade

Seven rural primary schools in the North Island are busy planning how to spend grants of $2000 each from Farmlands to create extra shade.

The schools are: Peria School (Kaitaia), Rahotu School (Taranaki), Puahue School (Te Awamutu), Lichfield School (Putaruru), Tiniroto School (Gisborne), Tutira School (Hawke’s Bay) and Mount Biggs School (Feilding).

The money was raised from ten ‘Ladies Nights’ fun events held by Farmlands in rural areas late last year.

Farmlands Innovation and Communications Manager, Allister Bathgate, says the idea for shade and planting came from one of the team at Farmlands’ head office.

“He’s involved with his local school and was aware that creating adequate shade is a real issue in rural schools. They also find it more difficult to find funding for extras because their rolls and communities are smaller.”

More than 200 schools applied for the grants. They needed to be a North Island rural school and demonstrate a need for shade. Rural Women New Zealand managed the application process.

Allister says Farmlands initially selected five schools to received $2000 each.

“But two of our sponsors of the ‘Ladies Nights’ events, Meridan Energy and FMG, also wanted to contribute. Farmlands found a bit of extra funding, so we had a total of $14,000 to distribute to seven schools.”

He says the Ladies Night programme was so successful, it will be repeated this year.

“We’re hoping to exceed our fundraising target to provide grants for another yet-to-be decided project to assist deserving rural schools.”

ENDS

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