By Shania Callender

Not only did Kayleigh Wallis make the hour-and-a-half trip to represent her school for the Zespri AIMS Games, she did it again the next day just to pick up rubbish.  

The Year 8 Waikato pupil won first equal in trampolining yesterday as the sole competitor for Whitikahu Intermediate School.

The next day, she travelled over the hill again to be part of the Zespri AIMS Games Gives Back beach clean-up along Mount Drury and Mount Maunganui Beach this afternoon. 

In partnership with Tauranga City Council, the beach clean-up encourages athletes to take a break from the AIMS Games and help give back to the community.

“I just love the ocean, and cleaning it up is kind of my thing,” said Kayleigh. 

Her mum said the decision to come back over to participate in the clean-up was an “absolute no-brainer”. 

“Every beach we go to she’s on the lookout for rubbish to pick up. She cares so much about the ocean and everything that goes in it, so she wanted to be involved.”

The amount of rubbish being picked up this year was still being counted. But last year, the beach clean-up participants picked up 35.9kgs of waste - 47 per cent of this being recyclable, and 53 per cent destined for the landfill. 

A 1994 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles chip packet was among the “weird” stack of rubbish found by the Napier Intermediate indoor bowls team. 

Students Amorangi Nuku and Jason Kanyan said it had been a “fun time” helping clean up the area, but they were surprised by how much they had picked up and seen. 

“Jandals, underwear, heaps of alcohol bottles, a lot of cat food cans.. but the teenage mutant ninja turtles thing was definitely the weirdest!”

Team coaches AJ Rarere and Tim Van Zyl said the clean-up had been an awesome opportunity for the students to get involved in something outside of sport and give back to the community. 

“It’ll definitely help them understand and learn new things about why it’s important to look after our environment and encourage other people to do the same thing,” said Rarere.

“I don’t think children are aware- they go and enjoy things for sports during the summertime but they don’t actually know how much rubbish there is in our environment until they go and really see how much they can find.”

Van Zyl said it was an event the kids will “definitely remember”, with the coaches’ hopes being that it’ll inspire them to carry on noticing and picking up rubbish where they can. 

Venue and events manager for Tauranga City Council Nelita Byrne said the clean-up was “kaitiakitanga in action”. 

“It’s so great to see these athletes give up their time to help support our sustainability as a city, and help us care for our precious coastline.”

Article added: Wednesday 06 September 2023