At 75 years old, Tauranga woman Mary Sanson could be spending her time playing bowls or gardening.
Instead the plucky pensioner has been down at Papamoa beach cleaning oil from the sand for the past five days and plans to continue doing so to help see her beloved coastline restoredto its former glory. "I have been down five times, I don't mind," Mrs Sanson said. Every day she drives from her home in Judea for a four-hour shift of sifting through sand. Her motivation is simply her love of the beach and, she adds: "I have the time."
Mrs Sanson has been retired for 10 years. She confessed she had a slightly sore back by the end of day four but "had a little rest" and returned to the beach with gusto yesterday.
She wore a high-visibility vest as team leader in charge of half a dozen volunteers, including tourists from Germany and marine biology students from Denmark. A white cotton hat protected her white hair and fair skin from the sun as she kneeled to sift through piles of sand. Mrs Sanson said she loved the beach and has spent plenty of time there boogie boarding with family. When she saw the black tides washing ashore on television after Rena grounded, she wanted to do what she could to help fix it, she said.
Despite the heat and hard labour, Ms Sanson is far from feeble. After her shift cleaning up at Papamoa beach yesterday, she was going dancing. "You need to keep your fitness up," she said.
Papamoa clean-up site manager Steve Courtney was rapt with Mrs Sanson's efforts."If a 75-year-old lady can come down and try to help, why can't more young people who aren't working?"
Mr Courtney said Mrs Sanson was one of the regulars who had arrived at the clean-up sites daily. "A lot of these guys have been coming down each day. I'll probably have to stop talking [training] in the morning because they already know the spiel. They know how it's done."
Mr Courtney said there was also another older man, believed to be in his 80s, who has arrived everyday to help with the clean-up. The man was usually let off 20 minutes early because he had trouble keeping pace with others. This gave him a chance to get to the clean-up base in time with everyone else. "It's just fantastic, what these guys are doing, and that they are coming down here every day to do it."
However, Mr Courtney was concerned such motivation might fade and more volunteers would be needed. If anyone was interested in helping, he asked that they arrive at clean-up sites with gumboots in hand.
