Overnight safari a real winner

Overnight safari a real winner

Students from Kristin Middle School spent a Saturday night, in early August, sleeping in the Old Elephant House at Auckland Zoo.

The school had won the Just Juice Grand Prize of an African-themed adventure at Auckland Zoo as a result of fund-raising for the World Vision 40 Hour Famine.

Kristin students efforts had raised the highest average dollar donation of any group or school in NZ during the appeal in March.

The group selected for the African adventure at the zoo were those who raised the most money for the Famine.

Kristin Middle School principal, Edward Berry, said, “The students were all very excited about the experience and quite frankly, so were the teachers who supervised them!”

The group took an evening tour of the zoo and were then treated to a performance by the dance group ‘Taste of Africa’. They ate dinner together before listening to a presentation by World Vision programme officer Anna Parsons, who has recently returned from Africa.

When asked what part of the night they liked best, the children, who were aged between 11 and 15, chose the experience of feeding the hippopotamus.

“It just opened it’s enormous, pink mouth and we threw in whole lettuces!” says Genevieve Lyon who was part of the winning group.

“There were some funny noises in the night, we heard the monkeys chattering but we all stayed calm and went to sleep. Staying at the zoo was a fantastic experience – a unique chance to explore a different environment,” she says.

As part of the 40 Hour Famine campaign, five cents from every marked three-litre bottle of Just Juice was donated to a Famine project in Tanzania, raising $15,000 in total – enough to build water tanks for three Tanzanian schools.

Staff from World Vision NZ recently filmed the children at one of these schools. The children asked what life is like for children in NZ. The Kristin Middle School students watched this footage during their stay at Auckland Zoo and will send a reply to the students in Tanzania.

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Image One:

Kristin students at the zoo.