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Last modified: 11 Aug 2020 11:02am

A group of students sitting on the floor painting a nature scene on large wooden boards

A crafty tunnel and a short film festival, supported by the Council’s Creative Community Fund, are helping bring a fun twist to raising awareness about environmental issues.

Lincoln Envirotown’s annual short film competition and KidsFest’s craft and science day aim to bring the Selwyn community together, while promoting environmental action.

This year’s KidsFest event in July encouraged kids to ‘explore our wetlands’ through science  experiments and crafts – from shoe box dioramas to dragonfly pegs made from recycled materials from the Creative Junk store.

Each year, Lincoln High School Sustainability Council students organise the theme and activities, decorate a themed tunnel and help the children with crafts and science on the day. Lincoln Envirotown Project Manager Dave Fitzjohn said it was impressive how quickly the students  planned the event after lockdown halted meetings.

“This year the high school students were really good because there was a very short time to get together and work stuff out – they did really well.”

This year’s event was amazing with over 90 participants and great helpers, he says, including international students from Darfield High School assisting with mask making, colouring and supervising the tunnel.

In September, Lincoln Envirotown will host their Environmental Short Film Competition awards at the Lincoln Event Centre where people can watch the entries. The competition is open to people of all ages and abilities with money and environmental prizes to be won.

The awards are like the Oscars, but for environmental awareness, Dave says; something he is very passionate about. “If you’re going to have a job in retirement, I guess I’ve got the perfect one. I can’t really stop  the Amazon forests from burning down, but I can tell kids and people around Selwyn about it.”

Applications for the Creative Community Fund are now open. Visit our arts funding page to find out more.