Collecting cartons earns big rewards

After months of carton collecting and counting, five lucky primary schools from different parts of the country have taken out the top prizes in the Awesome Colgate Carton Race.

Akitio School in Dannevirke, Te One School in the Chatham Islands, Lynton Downs School in Kaikoura, Waimate Main School in Waimate and Belmont School in Auckland each received $10,000 towards the sports equipment of their choice.

Winners were selected based on the number of cartons collected per student. With over 300 schools taking part, the competition was fierce for the five winning schools, all of which went the extra mile to bring in cartons and build spectacular carton creations in the final weeks of the race.

Auckland’s Belmont School collected an impressive 9077 cartons – the most cartons of any school in the competition – and celebrated the final day with an all-school red and white mufti day. Ali Logan, head of sports at Belmont Primary, was elated with the number of cartons the school collected and says their carton numbers jumped from 6700 to 9077 in the last few days of the competition. “Our kids, staff, parents and the wider community have really been resourceful. One of our dads spent nine hours – with kids in toothpaste suits – standing outside Albany New World asking shoppers for their Colgate cartons,” Logan says.

“For the last two weekends of the race, we even rostered families to collect cartons from our local Devonport New World. Both times the supermarket sold out of Colgate toothpaste.”

Logan believes the carton race was a great way to bring everyone in the school together for an important cause.

“There was a general buzz that resulted from collective teamwork and coming together as a school to earn much needed funds. It was like Mt Everest for us because we had such a high roll compared to other schools.”

Dannevirke’s Akitio School took first place in the race having managed to pull in a few hundred cartons from just seven students on the roll: a remarkable effort for a small community school with just a handful of families and the wider community contributing. Te One School in the Chatham Islands took out second place and collected an outstanding 2472 cartons, a superb effort for a school with 57 students.

Taking third place, Kaikoura’s Lynton Downs School (with only 12 students) collected over 500 cartons by reaching out to their wider community for help.

The creative prizes went to Havelock North Intermediate, Pokuru School, Fairhaven School, Redwood School (Tawa), and Merrilands School.

Colgate-Palmolive presented each winning school with a $10,000 voucher to be put towards their choice of sports equipment.

The object of the race was for schools to collect as many empty Colgate toothpaste cartons as possible between March 28 and June 30. The initiative was part of an awareness campaign to promote the importance of healthy lifestyles while encouraging children to get brushing.