– It is creative and smart that we can work in the environment instead of our parents ending up selling cake boxes, says Tiril Marie Pettersen. She and around 80 other 9th graders at Verket School in Moss will go out and work for four days in nature next year. The idea came when dad Arne Wangberg and partner Trude Raanæs started thinking about how they could raise money for a final trip to Galdhøpiggen in the tenth grade. The trip will cost NOK 300,000. The money would normally have been raised through the sale of things such as cake tins or doilies. Arne Wangberg got the municipality and the business world involved in a student effort, financed by parents and companies, with the municipality on the team. Photo: Lars Håkon Pedersen / news – After calculating it, we found out that we had to sell over 10,000 cake boxes, says Wangberg. Around the country there are countless campaigns to collect money for sports teams and associations, or class trips. This has led the Norwegian Sports Confederation to recognize that all sales of goods, such as washcloths, toilet rolls and cake boxes, are also perceived as a problem. Instead, the two mossers looked for solutions that could serve the local environment. – We thought about what we could do locally, and landed on an idea where the students make an effort in nature at the same time as we get money for the class coffers, he says. Selling working hours in nature The project has been named En hour teller. It involves students selling work hours that are bought by parents and companies. They chose four areas; beach cleaning, establishment of flower meadows, rehabilitation of salamander ponds and installation of bird boxes and marking of birds. At Verket school, we meet several of the approximately eighty students who will learn about environmental work and work for the school trip. – I think it is much more positive. Instead of going around selling cake boxes or doilies, it’s much better to do something for the environment that gives us knowledge and is good for nature, says 14-year-old Christan Broks Nordmark. But students need help from professionals. Now they would like to have the municipality involved in the project. The students will work on establishing flower meadows in Moss in the spring. Photo: Kaj Hjertenes / news Gave the municipality a boost In Moss municipality, community planner Charlotte Aune Bryne ignited the idea. They already have quite ambitious plans for environmental work in the municipality, but there are challenges in realizing them. Charlotte Aune Bryne says the student project has accelerated environmental work in the municipality. Photo: Lars Håkon Pedersen / news The question of finding specific places to do the environmental work put pressure on them, she says. – Not only to get started, but also to get the overview we needed to get. This forces us to become more structured, when we have to find areas in nature that we will use for student work. The municipality must not only find places where young people can do a job. They must also participate actively, first in the classroom. Moss municipality has plans to rehabilitate salamander ponds. They are now getting help for that. Photo: Private – We will go in and talk about the four themes, and organize the practical work, so that we have ready places to hang bird boxes or rehabilitate a pond. Then we go out and do the work together with the students. For this, they also bring in experts, such as ornithologists to help with the bird work, and botanists to establish flower meadows. Silje Høsøien is looking forward to working with flower meadows. – That sounds fun. Then we combine learning with hard work and get money for it, while doing something for the environment. Willing to spread the idea The parenting project has received support from several businesses in the area, and Sparebank1 Moss decided quite quickly to give them financial support. – This is good for the students who are going out to work, it is good for those who buy hours from them, and it is good for society. It’s win, win, win, says bank manager Ida Andberg. At home with Anders Thome Wangberg’s family, not only dad Arne is active with the student project. Roommate Trude is a graphic designer and has designed the website and created an Instagram account for En time teller. Trude Raanæs hopes more people will use the scheme they have created for environmental work in school classes. Photo: Privat – The idea is that we who buy the lessons contribute to the students coming on a trip, and for the students it makes a difference that they contribute an hour of work for the environment. The combination of these is strong, says Arne Wangberg. They hope that other schools and other municipalities can be inspired to do something similar, by combining knowledge about the environment with good measures locally instead of selling goods.
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Found a new way to finance a class trip – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
