Community Service 

A Week Filled with Service and Adventure

By Claire Byron, Year 10, The Ridgeway Campus

During the last week of Term 1, the Year 10 IDEALS cohort, spent the week enjoying outdoor and community service activities. These activities challenged our teamwork skills and pushed us outside of our comfort zones. We were all split up into groups of four and were rotated through activities, which consisted of: surfing at URBN surf park, cycling through the Yarra River Trail, kayaking in Southbank and community service either with Big Group Hug or Open House.

URBN SURF located in Tullamarine is Australia’s first self-made surf park! Part of this activity was learning to surf and getting up on our board on land, and practising different techniques used to surf. Once the group was fully prepared, they jumped into the water and began surfing. There were definitely some natural surfers in my group!

Kayaking was held on the Yarra River and was run by Sea Kayak Australia. The leaders took us from the boat sheds in Southbank to the Docklands, where the groups stopped for lunch and took in the scenic view of the city skyline. After lunch, we all paddled back and unloaded our gear. On this day, the group was taught water safety skills regarding kayaks and overall safety around water.

Yarra Trail Cycling – this activity consisted of a 10km cycle through Melbourne’s famous scenic Yarra River Trail. The group left from Locksley and rode to Studley Boat Park. The ride even included a few off-road dirt biking trails, for the brave riders. We stopped at the boat park and enjoyed a nice lunch watching the ducks swim past. This activity challenged our strength, but it was enjoyable.

Open House/Big Group Hug

These activities were the community services aspect of our week.

Open House consisted of helping disadvantaged people in our society, by building friendships with them. The groups that went to Open House loved maintaining the gardens, which consisted of everyone pitching in and putting on gardening gloves to help out.

Big Group Hug is a not-for-profit organisation that assists families with acquiring basic necessities such as clothing and toys. Our group helped the charity sort out the many donations they receive, this was either by testing the toys, checking the sizes of the clothing or making learning packs for children who need them most.

How to Have a Voice at University Campus

Victoria Sze, Year 9, University Campus

The IDEALS Committee at University Campus is run weekly at lunchtimes on Wednesdays and is where we eat our lunches and discuss the ways we can promote awareness for certain causes. The committee is responsible for creating and planning fundraiser activities. Many of our fellow peers in the committee were inspired and eager to know that the IDEALS Committee had been organised to commence at University Campus.  

'I was excited when the IDEALS Committee for University Campus was announced, because it was an opportunity for all of us to contribute and take part equally. Sometimes it can be harder with a variety of year levels to do different workloads. However, at University Campus we are all doing the same things and are up to date with each other’s assignments and homework, so we are able to work together efficiently and with success.”'

Philomena Spicer, Year 9, University Campus

With the meetings we have participated in, we established three different subcommittees and discussed which we would want to engage and contribute further. This meant being responsible for creating and planning fundraising enterprises focusing on the desired subcommittee. The three subcommittees are local, environmental and international. 

The subcommittee of ‘local’ consisted of service through local and school level communities. This included creating fundraisers and charities within the campus. Many of these local-level fundraisers involve casual clothes days in support of charities such as Big Group Hug. The ‘environmental’ subcommittee focuses on innovative ways to promote sustainability through sustainable practices at school.

Lastly, the ‘International’ subcommittee is where we consciously raise awareness for issues that are global and suggest possible solutions to them.  

On the local level, a casual clothes day has been organised to support and celebrate IDAHOBIT day: the international day against homophobia, biphobia, interphobia and transphobia. With a rainbow-themed casual dress day, the community at University Campus were advised to wear colours that represent the colours of the LGBTQ+ flag and to bring along a gold coin donation. All proceeds went towards an organisation that supports LGBTQ+ youth in Australia called Minus-18. 

As a committee, and as a whole, we look forward to the meetings yet to come and the new and distinctive ideas to share for the upcoming year. 

Big Group Hug It Out

By Harriet Thorpe, Year 12, The Ridgeway Campus

I have recently been a lucky attendant at two Big Group Hug Thursday Night youth volunteer sessions through one of the School’s great service programs.

Big Group Hug is a charity organisation, which raises funds and collects thousands of donations every year to provide families in need with basic resources. The organisation collects clothing, hats, shoes, long and short-sleeved tops, pants, pyjamas and undergarments in sizes ranging from 00000 (tiniest newborn ever!) up to 16 for both boys and girls. Furthermore, following their aim of helping families, particularly new families in need, the organisation receives and distributes donations of toiletries; baby wipes, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soaps, deodorants and nappies.

Between January and March 2021, Big Group Hug distributed 25,373 items (addressed above) to 563 families. This includes 962 children! They also distributed items through 60 agencies and the community, particularly small business donations, which is awesome!

The organisation mostly accepts new and preloved clothing and toys, however, they have had a recent push for strollers (pram/pushers) as well. If there is a need for a particular product, Big Group Hug send out requests to their high following on social media and the donations come flooding in. That said, with the number of people and the amount of effort the volunteers put in, it is clear to see how much our help is making a difference so please donate, it is always appreciated, and please follow @biggrouphug!

Thursday nights is Youth Night so as well as Ivanhoe Grammar School students, many regular helpers from around the local area help and are always nice to chat with. Plus, as it is a cross-campus service program, I have been able to meet new people from other campuses including the first time I met Avriel Das, one of the Editors, in person. The organisation themselves do not make contact with any of the families they provide for but work through other charities such as Red Nose and Church groups who do personally interact with the families to maintain sensitivity and a degree of anonymity. The surrounding aura on the sessions is fun and friendly, often someone brings a speaker so you can enjoy some tunes while packaging and sorting out clothes or toys.

The organisation has a database of the families in need and then they collate boxes with a certain number of clothing items for the particular person. For example, in one of these boxes, you may have 2 x jumpers, 2 x long sleeve tops, 2 x pants and 4 x pairs of socks.

The student volunteers assist with the sorting aspects. Both my volunteer sessions were different so I had the benefit of getting an insight into the different categories of needs that Big Group Hug meets. In my first session with the School, I helped sort clothes from massive donation bins and also help pack boxes for the families. Serotonin and laughter filled the warehouse as the volunteers tested out battery-operated toys including a very cheeky Furby toy.

They also fundraise in other ways. They have recently held a Bunnings Sausage Sizzle and a gift-wrapping fundraiser. In the two weeks before Christmas, Big Group Hug rented a space in Doncaster Shopping Centre during the Christmas rush, where people could bring their presents to the station and pay via donation to Big Group Hug for the volunteers to wrap the presents for the buyer.

The volunteer sessions were a fantastic way to contribute to those in need while having fun hanging out with both new and old friends in an incredibly supportive environment. Keep a lookout in future for more opportunities to support this great charity. This experience is for anyone who loves a good time, while helping those in need!

For more information about donations or the organisation itself, please visit https://biggrouphug.org/. 

Thank you!