Jessica van Tonder
THE popular Billabong Pro has gone green this year – with initiatives not only to keep beaches clean and preserve sand dunes, but also to create awareness around rhino poaching.
As part of this plan, pre-primary schoolchildren from the seaside town of Jeffreys Bay and the Chipembere Rhino Foundation – established after two rhinos at the Amakhala Game Reserve died – have come on board.
The Grade R children from Smiley Kids will be cleaning up along the Supertubes for an hour every day during the competition. Wearing bright green bibs, the kids, aged between five and six years old, will collect rubbish in green recycling bags.
Teacher Veronica Drake said this formed part of the school’s green initiative.
"The kids also had a lot of fun creating a map of the world filled with their hand prints, which can be found in the VIP area. This is a great time for the children and they are learning about the environment as well as creating awareness about their town,” she said.
Chipembere is running a raffle in which the prize is a surfboard from St Francis Bay surfer and ASP competitor Dale Staples.
"I am happy to support this cause as it is great exposure for this foundation,” Staples said.
"That is why I have given this surfboard to them to raffle. It has the same specs as the boards I travel with and ... I have shaped the board myself.”
