General News
24 August, 2022
Student donations provide boost
MERCY Regional College (MRC) Year 8 students have turned their passions in to an initiative which shares their love of sporting with members of the Indigenous community.
MERCY Regional College (MRC) Year 8 students have turned their passions in to an initiative which shares their love of sporting with members of the Indigenous community.
As part of one of the school’s PEAK projects, a group of students set up a ‘Footy Drive’ to collect jumpers, boots, and footballs.
The collected items will be donated to CLONTARF Foundation in Kununurra, Western Australia; a foundation which helps to improve the education, life skills and self-esteem of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.
The students were grateful to everyone who has supported their initiative.
“When I lived in Kununurra, I saw how much Aboriginal kids loved footy and that gave our group the idea,” Lenny said.
Ned said students loved footy and wanted to help out an Aboriginal community which possibly did not have jumpers and boots to use all the time.
“We hope that with our donations they will get a chance to play more footy,” he said.
Ben and Sonny said it was “rewarding to know the generosity of the community was making a positive difference”.
“It’s been really cool to know that the community is happy to donate things to us and that we are part of making some other kids happy through football,” they said.
Max and Xavier said the initiative had also provided the students with an opportunity to learn new skills.
“We gained a lot of new skills while working together, planning, and sending official emails to big organisations such as Sherrin,”they said.
MRC community leader Emily Stephens said she “had goose bumps” when they saw all the donations come together.
“This was a passion project which will have a positive impact on others, especially young Indigenous kids who have the same love of footy as these boys,” she said.
“It was very heartening to watch the boys connect their love of footy to helping others. We have absolutely loved watching them create this initiative, make contacts and bring it to fruition.”