Stirring the possum in the USA

By Tania Martin
FOUR Beaconhills College students have gone global in their campaign to help save the Leadbeater’s Possum.
Up against the odds, twins Ellie and Mollie Travica, Elly Robertson and Luke McConnell travelled to America to take on an international problem solving competition.
Their project was simple – to help save one of Victoria’s emblems – the Leadbeater’s Possum.
Known as Helping the Endangered Leadbeater’s Possum (HELP), the project has been the direct result of the Black Saturday bushfires.
Less than 3000 of the possums are left in Australia and the fires destroyed 75 per cent of their habitat.
For the competition, the group raised more than $23,850 for new habitat boxes for the possums.
But for them it was more than just a project.
Molly said it was great to know they were helping.
Elly said the cash raised had sponsored 159 habitat boxes, which cost $150 each.
“They are made from non-toxic recyclable plastic, so we had to have them specially made,” she said.
“We did it because we are passionate about it, not just because it was work,” Luke said.
“We didn’t notice how much we really put into it until people told us how shocked they were with what we had done.”
The group has returned home after just missing out on taking the international title of the Macquarie Bank Problem Solving Competition.
HELP missed out by just six points against a Japanese school with a team of more than 110 students, the reigning champions.
The group has vowed to continue to help the possums. They were thrilled to take home the runner-up prize.
Luke said going to America was one of the best experiences of his life.
“It was so surreal,” he said.
Luke said it was also exciting to know they had come so close to winning against such a big school who had won it so many times before.
As part of the competition the group had to hold a stall at a fair to tell people about their project.
But they didn’t realise it would be so hard to sell the plight of the possums.
Molly said Americans hate possums as they are “big and ugly” over there.
“Every time we said we were trying to save the possums, they questioned why,” Elly said.
“Or they would say we hate possums … so we had to use a cute photograph of the Leadbeater’s in everything we did.”
Despite this setback, HELP managed to work their charm and the judges soon fell in love with the possums.
Luke even met a lady in a shoe store in Los Angeles who has vowed to jump online to see how the Leadbeater’s possums are doing.
The group has also been given a $6000 grant from the Shire of Yarra Ranges to help with revegetation in the Yellingbo Research.
The planting has also been jointly funded with Parks Victoria in a bid to increase the habitat for the possums.
“I think it’s really important for kids to help out with something they are really passionate about, because when we grow up we are going to live in the environment we created,” Elly said.