Whale Coast Conservation celebrated Spring Day with these schools in Stanford on Friday 4 September by facilitating tree planting at the schools and cleaning a very special dam.
The Willem Appel Dam is a place of recreation for local people and is also an important breeding spot of the endangered Western Leopard Toad.
Okkie Smuts and Die Bron schools turned out in force to pick up litter at the Willem Appel Dam and along the wetlands and stream. The message of the day was how important it is to care for our fragile environment by being careful about litter.
Plastics SA provided litter bags, gloves and datasheets. Overstrand Municipality added more gloves.
In a brief information session Sheraine van Wyk emphasised how much harm is done by littering and dumping at the Willem Appel Dam.
Intrepid volunteers from Overstrand Municipality took to the water at the Willem Appel Dam to pick up floating litter, including booze bottles. Sadly, it was evident that someone had also dumped a lot of offal (guts) in the dam during the week. Dead fish were evident.
Representatives of CapeNature lent a hand and volunteers from the Stanford Bird Club joined the party to pick up litter and help to manage the school kids.
Afriforum Overberg supported the Spring Day festivities with tree planting at the schools. It was great to have them all there, thank you.
The real Mr Willem Appel was listening to the goings on at the dam while the Stanford school kids were celebrating the arrival of spring. Mr Appel served the community as the headmaster of Die Bron Primary School for 40 years.
Whale Coast Conservation’s Shirley Volkwyn is a past student and visited with him while he recalled some of the ‘good ol’ days’.
Whale Coast Conservation is proud to be associated with these schools whose registration with WCC Youth Environment Programme (YEP) is sponsored by the Overberg Bird Fair.
The National Lotteries Commission funds a WCC project that raises awareness of sustainable lifestyles in the Overberg.