Paraparaumu College students give back to school and community

Paraparaumu College community captains Rose Ansell, Shayla Rigg and Jessica Przychodzko. Absent Aimee Paterson. Photo / Rosalie Willis

"I'm doing this because like the saying goes, 'it feels better to give than to receive'," Paraparaumu College community captain Jessica Przychodzko said.

With next week being Student Volunteer Week, Paraparaumu College are partnering with Volunteer Kāpiti to better connect and celebrate their contribution within the wider community.

"We get weekly requests from organisations for fundraising, awareness and partnership and we have community captains with the help of a services committee that helps filter them and choose what we help with," Paraparaumu College deputy principal Helen Benson said.

Paraparaumu College community captains Shayla Rigg, left, Rose Ansell and Jessica Przychodzko hanging up a poster advertising their next project. Absent Aimee Paterson. Photo / Rosalie Willis

"We know the amazing capacity our students have to help out.

"These kids are reliable, energetic and they can organise so much in short amount of time if they have to."

Running projects throughout the year, the Paraparaumu College service committee has already helped with the Child Cancer Foundation's annual collection, Kāpiti Youth Support, and have many more plans for the year including participating in Shave For a Cure, doing a blood drive and organising events for Pink Shirt Day.

The service committee is headed up by community captains Rose Ansell, Jessica Przychodzko, Shayla Rigg and Aimee Paterson.

"Last year with Covid-19 everything got cancelled and we weren't able to run much so this year we're just trying to get heaps of stuff done," community captain Rose Ansell said.

"We run events throughout the year for both the school and lots of different groups and organisations in the wider community," Jessica said.

"With student volunteer week next week we are trying to get involved with a range of different things.

"We have beach clean-up which is environmental, denim for dogs which is looking after animals and helping the environment, and Volunteer Kāpiti is coming in to talk about how you can volunteer effectively in the community."

The theme for this year's Student Volunteer Week is Collective Impact:Give.Grow.Connect.

"We are really impressed with how proactive students are at finding volunteer roles, identifying causes and making things happen," Volunteer Kāpiti manager Susan Ansell said.

"We are looking forward to talking more with the Paraparaumu Service Committee during Student Volunteer Week not only about the current volunteer roles we have available, but about how we can best match their skills and interests to new potential roles for our volunteer community."

"I like volunteering and giving back because you're always doing something new and exciting," community captain Shayla said.

"People find it more fun and interesting to join something they're not committed to, they can just come along when they're interested in a certain charity.

"You're not playing the same sport each week, you're doing a beach clean-up one week or making dog toys the next, and there are so many different causes to support."

With more than 70 students on the service committee look out for them around the community helping out and making a difference.