Exciting times as our collaboration with We SAVE continues to inspire us. Through support from MK Youth Board Co President, Bella, the team in Dompu, Sumbawa was able to realise their dream of planting a forest near their school. Their GreenLAB has been established and over the weekend the young people planted more trees to grow their vision.
Follow the We SAVE Dompu team on Insta for regular updates.
Belmont City College have been building on the objectives of the Carbon Slayers team of Agents of Climate Change from 2024.
Already this year the school has:
– Registered with Your Move and has progressed to Gold level
– Worked with the City of Belmont to teach students about bike security and help them register their bikes and scooters for a free lock.
– Had three days with WestCycle running a hands-on workshops where 15 students learned essential bike maintenance skills.
– Participated in National Ride2School Day with students who rode, scooted, or skated treated to a special National Ride2School Day Breakfast!
– Mayor Robert Rossi, from the City of Belmont, join the school to present three major prizes donated by the City of Belmont. Thanks to generous community donations, two students rode away with brand-new bikes, while four students received new helmets, kindly provided by Cassie Rowe.
A huge thank you to Trek Belmont for sponsoring additional raffle prizes!
This event was part of Belmont Bike Week, and by the end of the week, the number of students riding to school tripled!
Seeing so many students getting involved, gaining new skills, and embracing active transport has been amazing. Thanks to Carbon Slayers for organising the ride to school breakfast, and participating in Bike Week! Thanks to teachers Kristie Moore, and Jane Elton and Student councillors for helping grow the movement.
Keep pedalling, Belmont City College.
Thanks to Perth Airport for their support of the Agents of Climate Change program in 2024.
When Containers for Change was launched we were there supporting the cause.
Wayne is our Citizen Science Coordinator but he can also be seen to regularly pick up 10c deposit cans and bottles on his morning bird walk as part of his Containers for Change commitment to Millennium Kids Inc .
Some staff at the Department of Education, East Perth Central Services, also collect their cans and bottles and donate the funds raised to Millennium Kids, too.
In fact we were inspired recently when we heard in a report that Damian Gordon started collecting cans and bottles to recycle for cash, and that it helped him buy a house. Over the course of seven years, he managed to collect about $46,000 worth.
So let’s see if you can help us reach our goal in 2025. When you take your cans and bottles to a Container for Change location use our code C10300567 and help us raise $5000.00 this year.
It was great to speak recently on the Community TV show The Couch TV Perth about Millennium Kids and the impact it’s had on my life. Being involved in MK as a teen was an incredible experience, and now, as MK Alumni, I love supporting the next generation of young changemakers, including my own children now! Youth-led organisations like Millennium Kids show young people that their voices matter and we can make a difference if we share our ideas and work together to make them happen. The skills, networks, and mindset we gain through MK continues to shape our contributions in life as active community citizens.
For the full interview check out the link here – at 46.03 mins.
MK Alumni, Alicia Curtis
Photo: Alicia and her daughter had a great chat with Neesha on the couch before the session was recorded.
It was great to work with the Bullsbrook Landcare Group with 22 families from the Bullsbrook community joining Cathy on twilight and night walks to explore the Ki-It Monger creek canyon where Boobook owls have been seen roosting. Our walk revealed that owls need more than large trees to be able to make this their permanent Home. The only animals seen and heard were moths, ravens, magpies, a pobblebonk frog and a scorpion but no owls.The participants discussed the impact of factors such as increased number of houses and associated noise and movement and actions the community can work on to make this area into a sustainable habitat. There is much evidence of the efforts that the local land care group is making with weeding and planting, signage and pathways.
This week Cat and Wayne had a chance meeting in Margaret River with Maya, a supporter of our collaboration project at WE SAVE Lombok, Indonesia. This resulted in a meeting by the sea to talk about the impending training program for our partnership team in Australia. Maya and her family visited the WE SAVE team in Lombok in 2023 learning about their school and sustainability programs.
Wayne, MK Citizen Science, Coordinator met Didi and friends in Lombok in 2022 and spent a week with them visiting their programs, meeting team members and sharing MK processes before heading to meet the We SAVE team in Dompu, Sumbawa.
The UWA Engineering student group, Enitiate, are now working on their third project for Millennium Kids and the WeSAVE school in Dompu.
The current semester’s project is to design a simple and safe biogas digester for supplying methane as a cooking fuel to the school canteen, to replace LPG. The students are developing a design for the digester, along with operating and safety procedures. They will analyse the suitability of the available fuels, such as waste from the canteen, and the chicken and goat manure from the animals at the school.
Previous projects with Enitiate looked at rainwater harvest and storage, and converting the existing fish farm to a polyculture to capture nutrients and grow vegetables. Review, discussion and implementation of the projects become practical teaching and learning opportunities, while building the sustainability of the school.
Wayne O’Sullivan, MK Citizen Science Coordinator
There is nothing more exciting than when you hear there is water at Rowles Lagoon. With the bus booked, esky’s full of good food it is time to get out on Country and check out the only fresh water lake in the Goldfields. With Elders and back up vehicles prepped the kids were ready to roll.
After a drive from Coolgardie to Rowles Lagoon Conservation Park we found the lake was brimming with birds, kids had a swim and play in the mud and after a picnic donned their gloves and cleaned up the area as part of their commitment to caring for Country and Clean Up Australia Day.
Thank you Lotterywest and Australian Government Department of Social Services for supporting this Kids on Country program.
