Strath Taieri School principal Lisa Bankshaw said this month her school in Middlemarch was the 2000th recipient of Fern Energy’s rewards programme Fuel For Schools.
"We send a big thank you out to each and every farm that donates their Fern dollars to our school.
"Your support makes such a difference and we really appreciate your generosity," Mrs Bankshaw said.
Fern Energy customers could nominate a school to receive a 50cent programme credit for every 100 litres of fuel customers had had delivered.
Once a school hit a $1000 target, they could redeem it for products in a catalogue.
"It’s incredible because it means that we can buy things that we don’t necessarily, as a small rural school, can afford." Consequently, the school’s 48 pupils got resources to use and more of the school budget could be spent employing teachers.
"It’s fabulous."
She thanked anyone who had nominated Strath Taieri School in the programme.
"Your generosity is so appreciated. The kids love it. Thank you very, very much."
Fern Energy communications manager Andrew Trevelyan, of Christchurch, took a cake to the school to celebrate the milestone earlier this month.
"We had a really cool cake made by a really good baker in Dunedin. The kids loved it."
Fern Energy was formed through the merger of Southfuels and Farmlands Fuel, a couple of years, Mr Trevelyan said.
The programme was launched by Southfuels about a decade ago and had since issued about 2000 resource packages to schools, worth about $1000 each.
Half of those packages had been redeemed in the past four years.
Some schools had received up to four packages a year.
"We’ve got a little rural school here in Canterbury and all of their kids got free laptops through the programme."
