Farmers fund raise for schools

Janke Venter,Brayden Smith,Remy Cowper and principal Margaret McLean (second left) thank Nathan Smith, Turakina principal Margaret McLean, Mark Laurence, Chelsea Atkin, Kerry Walker and Tony Maas.

Schools in the Rangitikei district have benefited from the proceeds of an auction for local Fonterra suppliers by the Marton Farm Source Store.

Regional manager for Central District Farm Source stores Tony Maas said the farm product suppliers donated goods for the auction held at Marton Memorial Hall on June 30.

"A group of Fonterra Farmers got together and bid for the goods then donated the proceeds to a school of their choice," he said.

"All the items were things that farmers will make use of - some of the winning bids exceeded the value but they weren't bothered about that."

Turakina School received a cheque for $2000 which principal Margaret McLean said will be used to purchase specialised texts.

"Those materials that are very helpful to readers with dyslexia are expensive so it is really nice to get this boost."

Huntly, South Makirikiri, Hunterville, Whangaehu and Halcombe schools all received cheques from the enterprise.

Mr Maas said suppliers New Zealand Agriseeds Ltd, Ballance Agri-nutrients, Agrifeeds, Pioneer, Seales Winslow, Bell-Booth Ltd, Zoetis NZ, Ecolab, Gallagher and Nufarm all contributed generously to make the auction such a success.

"A lot of the schools in the region really need support and many of the school families were hard hit by the floods last year."

He said farmers chose schools they wanted to support for different reasons like having children in attendance or they may have attended the school themselves.