Tauranga teacher takes on Paperclip Challenge for victims of Christchurch mosque shootings

Leah Nesbit started off with a paperclip.

Now, she has an ice cream maker. By Sunday, she hopes to have an item of such high quality it will fetch a significant amount of money for victims of Christchurch's shootings.

The Tauranga primary school teacher has embarked on The Paperclip Challenge, aiming to trade up a paperclip in seven days to something valuable.

Leah Nesbit is trading up a paperclip to raise money for Christchurch mosque shootings victims. Photo / George Novak

Within two days, the paperclip has already been traded for a whistle, pen, stationery set, hat, Warriors shirt, tennis racquet and today the ice cream maker.

Nesbit, who works at Te Ranga School, said she and some friends attended a business course on Sunday and were then assigned The Paperclip Challenge - They were each given a week to turn an innocuous, simple paperclip into something of much greater value.

For Nesbit, the greatest item of value she could think of was something to help those affected by Friday's massacre in Christchurch in which 50 people were gunned down.

"On Monday, I took the paperclip with me to work colleagues and that's why I've ended up now with an ice cream maker," she said.

Nesbit has now taken her challenge online, asking people on Facebook what they would be interested in trading in the eventual goal of raising money to help the survivors and families of Christchurch's shootings.

"I hope enough people will see it and want to trade," she said.

"It would be good to drown out the negativity of what has happened by focusing on something positive. This is an awesome way for people to have a bit of fun and get rid of stuff they don't want."

On Sunday, Nesbit will auction the last remaining item off on Trade Me, with all money from that will be donated to the official Victim Support Christchurch shootings victims' fund.

What is The Paperclip Challenge?

Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald bartered his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of 14 online trades over the course of a year. MacDonald was inspired by the childhood game Bigger, Better. His site received a considerable amount of notice for tracking the transactions. "A lot of people have been asking how I've stirred up so much publicity around the project, and my simple answer is: 'I have no idea'", he told the BBC.
Source - Wikipedia.org