21 Dec 2023Congratulations to our final Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month for the year, Tracey McLeod of Rotorua. As a member of Restore Rotorua and the Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers groups, Tracey has been active in the Rotorua community for years. Her beautification efforts originally started when she began mowing neglected grass verges in her community, to help keep the area — which included streets near the tourist hotspot of the Redwoods/Whakarewarewa Forest — looking sharp. Of course, in amongst the overgrown grass was litter, which she started collecting and disposing of properly. In February of this year, she came across an abandoned shopping trolley and soon found it didn’t take much to fill it to the brim with litter from the streets. Using these carts as a unique measuring tool, over the course of nine months she’s managed to fill 12 whole trolleys — all of them abandoned and recovered — with collected litter. She was profiled in local and national newspapers, on the radio and on TV for her efforts. Tracey believes that most residents are proud of Rotorua and their community, and some just need a nudge in the right direction to be a Tidy Kiwi — which she hopes all the media attention has helped with. She also mentions that the Council is now working harder than ever to tackle litter and beautification issues, but it won’t slow her down any! Tracey has recently touched base with local schools that are near litter hotspots, offering to help educate students on the impacts of litter. Tracey is keen to see Rotorua take the Most Beautiful Small City crown in the 2024 Beautiful Awards (neighbouring Taupo won the Supreme Award in 2023), and at this rate she’ll make it happen. Watch this space! Ka pai Tracey! As our Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month, Tracey will receive a Keep New Zealand Beautiful merchandise pack as well as a Resene paint voucher, for beautification projects or for fixing up any local graffiti she comes across. Tracey will also be automatically nominated for the Tidy Kiwi Award at our annual Beautiful Awards. Know someone keeping New Zealand beautiful? Simply nominate them to become a Tidy Kiwi Volunteer of the Month here. Photo credit: Andrew Warner/Sun Media Share this page
