Creative use of road signs for charity

The two pieces which are up for auction will raise funds for road safety charity Brake.

A group of creative students from Waiuku College in Auckland have found a new use for old road signs, enabling the signs to be recycled and used to raise funds for road safety charity Brake too.

Signsalvage, a company set up as part of the Young Enterprise programme, has taken road signs that are no longer in use by the NZ Transport Agency, and turned them into two unique pieces of furniture - a road sign chair, and a Give Way Leaner.

The pieces are now up for auction on Trade Me, with 15 percent of the money raised going to road safety charity Brake to support their work preventing road deaths and injuries and supporting people bereaved in road crashes.

Signsalvage was the work of Year 13 Business Studies students Nathan H'ng, Aidan Carson, Lee Rattrie, Leae' Taani, Liam Maddren, and Hamish Jolly.

Signsalvage communications manager Hamish Jolly said the group wanted to take something that was no longer in use and turn it into an item that was useful again, and unique.

" We thought that products like this would be a fun and effective way to promote a good cause too, and as we were working with road signs, we really wanted to support road safety, so chose Brake as our charity partner."

Brake's NZ director, Caroline Perry said the students had done a fantastic job and the charity was grateful for hte support.

"They were particularly keen to support our resources for people bereaved in crashes and just $20 is enough to cover the production of one copy of our support book for children to provide it free of charge to a bereaved family."

The auctions are currently online and run until Thursday 28 August:
The Give Way Leaner
The Road sign chair