Education

Paws for a Cause – Enterprising students’ project goes national

<h2>Last year&comma; Oliver Zhang and a group of fellow pet loving and owning school friends had an idea that would help their four-legged friends&comma; their human owners&comma; and the planet&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We realised that many individuals&comma; especially those from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds were struggling to care for their pet cat and dogs&period; This is especially so under the exacerbated conditions of Covid&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Oliver&comma; a student of the Crimson Education programme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;After visiting our local mechanic and seeing a massive pile of old unroadworthy tyres that were destined for the landfill&comma; we realized that we could turn them into&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Supported by the Young Enterprise Scheme&comma; and with the help of our friends and local community&comma; the group has flourished&period; &&num;8220&semi;We have donated over 2000 units of soft-pet bed products &lpar;worth over &dollar;80&comma;000&rpar;&comma; manufactured using recycled materials and shipped from China&comma; and more than 50 tyre-beds&period; Most of the materials for these&comma; such as the cotton&comma; and of course&comma; the tyres&comma; were supplied to us by generous community members&comma; family and friends&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The team has worked with local pet welfare NGOs&comma; such as the Humane Society of NZ and the SPCA&comma; who have helped them distribute the pet beds around the community&comma; and have pledged to distribute them nationally &lpar;they are currently focusing on the Albany region&comma; due to Covid restrictions&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Oliver says&comma; &&num;8220&semi;We achieved our funding through a variety of sources&colon; Crimson Youth Fund &lpar;I am currently a student of Crimson Education&rpar;&comma; generous family members and friends&comma; community donations and fundraising events that we&&num;8217&semi;ve organised through church and campaigning etc&period; As well as investing in stocks&semi; some of our team members do this as a hobby&comma; and have donated 100&percnt; of what we earnt from stock investing to the cause&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To find out more go to&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pawsforacause&period;space&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">https&colon;&sol;&sol;pawsforacause&period;space&sol; <&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Heather Barker Vermeer

Heather has worked as a journalist, writer and editor in England and Aotearoa New Zealand for over 20 years. She fell in love with words when she received a 'Speak & Spell' tech toy for Christmas in 1984.

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