NACI HOPE students partner with Rotary Club in clean up

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Published on Friday, May 15, 2015

By John Drinkwater

The Neepawa Banner

On  May 5, Rotarians and NACI HOPE students enjoyed a barbecue at Riverbend Park following a successful cleanup. A total of 80 NACI students were divided into three groups to work in Rotary Park, the fairgrounds and the compost site. 

One of the HOPE teacher advisors, Michelle Young, said, “Winds proved challenging at the fairgrounds whilst raking leaves. Students were busy sorting items into either compost or garbage.” Over the past four years, the HOPE group has increased. It started with 32 students in 2011 and has over 100 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

Michelle commented that eight youth were graduating this year and of these, many had provided 100 to 140 volunteer hours since 2011. She explained, “We have been supporting a project in Kenya, the first year was clean water, second being health care; and the past two years we concentrated on education. $10,000 was required for this and half  was donated in 2014. We are grateful to partner with Neepawa Rotary Club. Today's $1000 contribution will be a large part of our final $5000 donation. This is the final event of the 2014/2015 school year. 

The HOPE group will have a windup on May 25 and prepare for discussions in the fall, including some of the ideas provided by Winnipeg Harvest. I especially want to recognize the other four NACI staff advisors who assisted in this year’s events. It's been a pleasure working with the students.”

NACI grade 12 students Morgan Graham and Brooke de Koning accepted the cheque from Neepawa Rotary Club president Dave Bennet on behalf of the other HOPE students.