Student's environmental video takes top prize

There's a problem in our backyard - a screenshot from the award winning video made by Tauranga student Rebekah Richards.

Twenty year old Rebekah Richards has won first prize in the Enspire Youth Video Challenge awards.

Ms Richards secured a $2000 project grant for the Mauao Area Wildlife Trust to increase pest control efforts at Moturiki (Leisure Island) near Tauranga as part of the awards last week.

"I've been doing volunteer work with native birds in the Mauao area since 2008, and got involved with caring for little blue penguins after the Rena oil spill,'' she said.

''I've wanted to get into film making for a while now and thought the competition was a perfect opportunity to do that."

Ms Richards is a Marine Studies student at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

Enspire judges said that Ms Richard's inspiring video titled 'There's a problem in our backyard', made clever use of puppets to capture attention and deliver environmental action messages.

The video can be viewed below.

The Enspire Challenge was a joint initiative by Tauranga City, Western Bay of Plenty and Bay of Plenty Regional Councils to find out what environmental change young locals most want to see and encourage more people to get involved in caring for land, water and wildlife around the western Bay of Plenty.

The winning video will be played to an audience of 1000 attendees at the upcoming Tedx Tauranga event on July 25.

View it here:

Second place was awarded to Hannah Skelton, Liam Burn and Sophie Thomas from Aquinas College for their team entry titled 'Enspire Ted Remix', which encouraged everyone to create a better tomorrow by taking 30 simple actions in 30 days.

Another team, formed by Gurpreet Dhoat and Jahdiel Thomas took third place honours.

Runner-up prizes were awarded to three other entries that looked at how local people want to be able to enjoy their natural areas at ?mokoroa, Katikati and Waikareao Estuary.

Other entrant's videos can be viewed at boprg.govt.nz.