FOUR teenagers who decided to clean one of their favourite places as a part of a school project have been catapulted into the Victorian Tidy Town’s finals.
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Nine Horsham groups have been announced as state finalists for their efforts keeping the city clean.
Horsham College year 10 students Noah Talbot, Mitch Moore, Brittney Baker and Darcy Carter said they had no idea when they started their ‘Making Green Lake’s beaches better’ project it would become a Keep Victoria Beautiful finalist.
Their simple idea and significant effort to clean up the foreshore of Green Lake one day last August has captured the attention of judges.
“I’m always water-skiing down there in summer,” Mitch said.
“I hated to go out and see how it was. It had syringes, broken bottles and cans everywhere.
“It’s not inviting – so we thought for our project let’s clean it up and hope more people go out and enjoy it.”
Horsham’s Holy Trinity Lutheran School’s community gardening initiative, the Horsham Town Hall fundraising committee’s Nutbush Horsham world record attempt and the Northfest Family Fun Festival were all named finalists in their respective categories.
Also named as finalists were the Horsham Men’s Shed, Horsham Urban Landcare Group’s program to increase heritage skills through holistic workshops, the Horsham fishing competition’s litter initiative and the Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre.
Landcare, Wimmera Catchment Management Authority, Barengi Gadjin Land Council, Horsham schools, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Wimmera Regional Library Corporation and Horsham’s Art is…festival were recognised for fostering future environmental leaders in the Horsham community.
Noah, 15, and Mitch, 16, said they were shocked when their school project to help the community was named a state finalist.
“It feels good. It had a good affect on the community,” Noah said.
“I was pretty surprised when we found out.”
The boys said a recent trip to the lake showed their day-long effort was not in vain, as the lake’s foreshore was still in a relatively clean condition. Noah said they did not know what their chances were of progressing in the competition but hoped their group’s work continued to benefit the lake.