Donation lets kids get out and about

Principal Vanessa Te Ua and Laurie Hunt with Marton Junction School pupils and their new seats. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Marton Junction School were faced with a problem last year when the new child restraint law stipulated that children under 7 years old must have car seats - they couldn't go on school outings.

Enter Laurie Hunt of the Rangitikei Freemasons with a cheque to cover the cost of 10 car seats and this week he was able to provide the school with finance for another 10 seats.

School principal Vanessa Te Ua said the seats mean that outings are much easier to plan now.

"We were asking parents to leave car seats at school but sometimes they need to use them for siblings of our students as well so it just wasn't possible to organise outings."

Laurie Hunt has had a long association with the school, both as a parent and a long term board of trustees member.

"It got to a point when I realised I'd been here longer than my kids were," he said.

Mr Hunt says the Freemasons help the community in a number of ways and are often there to fill gaps for groups and individuals.

"If a family has a big bill to pay and need to get through a financial hump we might buy their groceries for a couple of weeks until they get on top of things."

Six-year-old Piki Hamahona says he thinks the seats are great because "we can go somewhere".

Majandra-Rose Port, 7, and her brother Nickolai, 5, say the seats are "awesome, cool and comfy".

The school would also like to express their appreciation to the Warehouse for supplying the seats at a discount.