The Ambassadors’ Garden at Narangba Valley
“Environment means life!”. With a clear agenda for 2025, the EcoMarines Ambassadors at Narangba Valley State School are prepared to put into practice their sustainability plans while looking after a magnificent garden that would make anyone envious.
Chap, as she is called, is a vast, colourful garden in which strawberries, tomatoes and carrots can be grown. The food harvested is shared in the classrooms and the school cafeteria.
Legend says that eggplants are also rich commodities found in the same piece of land. “Once, a kid found an eggplant in the garden. It was great,” Ambassador Alice says with a gleam in her eye.
Narangba Valley State School is big, and the vivid garden is only one of the features brought to life by their EcoMarines Ambassadors. A few months ago, there was a charity campaign where students rallied to donate books to a new library overseas.
Working towards welfare and a sustainable community seems something natural to these students who are determined to bring about systemic change to their school.
“We have put a compost bin in each classroom, and, in addition, we bring compost to the garden,” says Ambassador Ramona. “It is so important to help the environment and reduce waste.”
Waste is, for sure, classified as the “common enemy” as the students have lined up bold plans to phase it out from the school surroundings.
The idea of collecting rubbish and showing students the amount of waste produced has come along quite well. “Showing visual evidence can motivate students to reduce waste. We need to show them what has been happening and how much rubbish we are producing. This idea can be taken to one of our assemblies,” Ambassador Alice points out.
In line with this principle, the students are also analysing the implementation of a water audit and a “Wrapper-Free Wednesday,” offering rewards for the class with the fewest wrappers. “Funding prizes can be arranged if we use the money we get from Containers for Change after exchanging plastic,” affirms Ambassador Alanah.
Making the school a waste-free space will improve the experience of planting native trees and improving animal habitats in the area. With this idea in mind, the Ambassadors want to ensure that animals are not consuming harmful debris.
“We have seen the presence of possums and a variety of birds in the area. Let’s work together and make them feel safe,” one Ambassador Maya completes.
