Laerskool Vredendal takes top honours in competition

In an awards ceremony which took place on Friday, 2 November at Vredendal, it was announced that Laerskool Vredendal won first prize of R10 000 in the Collect-a-Can/Koelbly Northern Cape Can Collection Competition, for their 69 312 cans that they collected during the competition. Koelbly is the distributor of Coca-Cola's products in the Northern Cape.

Ten schools in the Vredendal region took part in the pilot competition for their chance to win one of four prizes to the value of R25 000. The competition began in May this year which encouraged school children of all ages to collect beverage and food cans, and helped create awareness about the impact of litter on the environment.

Second place was awarded to Naasdrift Primêr with R7 500, Hoërskool Vanrhynsdorp came third with R5 000, and R2 500 was awarded to Vergenoeg Primêr for fourth place. All the schools also received cash for the cans that were collected during the competition. The competition could not have been a success without the help of Christo Veldman, owner of CV Scrap who collected the cans from each school and also marketed the competition in the area.

Thrilled with participation

"As the first competition of its kind in the area, we are thrilled with the participation of the schools involved and hope to see more enthusiasm from other schools in the future. It's a great opportunity for schools to educate their pupils about taking care of the environment while standing a chance to win funds to upgrade their facilities," said general manager of Koelbly, Willem Jordaan.

"It is important for us to educate our learners about the importance of recycling," said Denise Green, corporate social investment manager of PenBev. "We are very pleased to work with Collect-a-Can on this initiative. Their schools competitions provide a wonderful platform to reach out to more learners. The competition forms part of PenBev's 'Live for a Difference' campaign, where caring for the environment is one of the many focus areas that we have," she concluded.