Adam Nachowitz

Adam is passionate about the environment and living sustainably. He is setting up workshops to teach students how to make easy sustainable options they can use on a daily basis.

Caitlin Hill & Kaitlyn Kelly

Kaitlyn and Caitlin make care packages for homeless people in Hamilton. They include food, water, blankets and other items that will come in handy. “We believe that everyone has a right to be warm, have a home, and be loved and cherished. We love giving back and making people feel loved.”

Caz Robinson

Caz is a year 9 student at Lincoln High School. He loves plants and nature and has recently discovered a passion for cooking. These passions have developed into Caz wanting to create a garden for the school embarking on membership of the charity program 'Garden To Table.' The garden will be starting up this Spring and Caz hopes to eventually be able to produce enough vegetables for the staff of the school, and then a further goal of supplying to the local community through a market. The funds will be used to buy seeds, plants, potting mix and equipment.

Evie Snell

Evie has been involved in the breakfast club at her school over the last 3 years. She has put time, effort and her own money into helping provide breakfast once a week for any students who attend. She now runs the club and the funds will help greatly towards food as they rely solely on donations.

Jimmy Hemera

Jimmy has been playing baseball in Christchurch since 2013, and put in lots of time and effort into helping maintain and improve his local baseball ground in Avonhead. Recently there has been damage to one of the fields which makes it dangerous to play on, so Jimmy will be using the Local Hero Award for a working bee to repair the damage. The pitching mounds, bases and home plates on a baseball field are constructed of specialised clay so specific equipment and materials are needed for the repairs. He is also going to build a portable mound (what the pitcher stands on) to give younger players the opportunity to learn and play baseball and gives them the flexibility of taking baseball out to local parks and fields.

Jordy Annand

Jordy is the head of the Environment Committee at Christ’s College. They started a project of planting trees and native plants in the red zone. They have already planted 1500 trees this year and helped 3 other schools set up nurseries so they can help too.

Jorja Whale

At the end of 2017, Jorja found out she had a brain tumour and has gone through 4 cycles of chemotherapy. She finished the fourth cycle in May last year, and a month later started 24 weeks of daily radiation. During this hard time, the doctors and nurses were amazing and Gabby’s Starlit HOPE provided Jorja with weekly boredom boxes full of thoughtful gifts. With the award money, Jorja will be raising more money and awareness for Gabby’s Starlit HOPE.

Gabby’s Starlit HOPE was established by Gabby Devine in 2013 who was passionate about putting smiles on the faces of child cancer superheroes. Sadly Gabby passed away in 2015 but her legacy lives on. Gabby’s Starlit HOPE has delivered thousands of boredom boxes and random acts of kindness to children in hospitals all around New Zealand.

Keegan Bremner

Keegan and a few other home-schooled teenagers help develop and maintain tracks at Ashley Gorge. They have recently opened a new waterfall track and are working on building a bird-watching hide for anyone to come and enjoy bird-watching there.

Ollie Brakenridge

Ollie is the head of Rolleston House at Christ’s College which has recently partnered up with Spreydon Primary School. They found out that around a quarter of the students arrive at school hungry without a proper food source and that the school has recently moved locations post-earthquake and has almost no funding for sports equipment. So with the funds from the Local Heroes Award, Rolleston House would be able to send a van of students to provide breakfast for the students every second Thursday, and then take sports equipment at lunchtime to play games like basketball and football with them on the alternate week.

Timi Barabas

Timi is part of Student Enviro Leaders in Waikato and the coordinator of the Waikato Climate Action Week. She is organising a week of environment-related events to raise awareness and give the people of Waikato the opportunity to learn about climate change and help them find ways to live more sustainably.