CLC - Volunteers Spring Into Action in Week 1
Proud of our current Year 9 C.L.C (Community Leadership Challenge) cohort, who on Wednesday 9th October began their 6 week Volunteering Project which will encompass the next 5 Wednesdays.
Groups have made a significant impact already, “giving back” at several important organisations, with very strong and positive feedback coming in from our hosts.
At the Loaves & Fishes headquarters in Ovens Street, which helps gather and deliver food and goods to those in need overseen by Anglicare, three of our girls (Keira Cox, Claire Shilcock and Cheyenne Stow) were said by David Still to be "outstanding." Keira gets a special mention for showing great leadership within the group.
At Oxley Primary School, two ex-Oxley girls in Jedda Driscoll and Lily Byrne are assisting their old school and drawing significant praise already. Jedda impressed the staff member she was working with so much, that there was requests made to "hire that girl". Jedda & Lily deserve special praise for arranging their project themselves - making contact with their former Principal Tim Seal off their own bat.
So too did Milly O'Kane and Casey Sheppard, who along with returning students Isabelle Christison (living in Canada) and Emily Swinburne (Leadership School), arranged to help at the Whitfield Community Childcare Centre where they all grew up. Talk about "giving back" to your community!
WDSS (Wangaratta & District Specialist School)teacher Rowan Barrow was extremely impressed with her group (Harrison Kelly, Riley White and Ryan Winter), who cleaned up their Sport Shed, organised their Library, and then helped the students on a trip to Ten Pin Bowling at Supa Bowl. This is powerful one, with one of our school's greatest athletes of all time (Rowan was a 4x State Triathlon Champion and multiple-time State Swimming Champion when at W.H.S) having just moved back to Wangaratta and loving being involved with us again.
At Wangaratta West Primary School we have 12 students in 3 groups. The "Grounds Crew" (Coen Coppinger, Charlie Leslie, Cas Turk and Archer Wilson) made a sudden impact in the yard, removing a plethora of large weeds from garden beds at the front of the school, neatened up the Garden Shed, and spread barrow loads of bark chips around various beds. They worked well tighter and showed tremendous work ethic.
The "P.E Assistants" (Seth Connolly, Lionel Huggins, Dylan McCombe and Kayden Vozlic) worked under the wings of P.E teacher Demi Walker and Newmo, taking 2x one hour P.E sessions with junior classes, focusing on the skill of Kicking. They reportedly did great job.
The 4 "Classroom Helpers" (Amelia Harding, Jess Shaw, Jade Todd and Lillian Wilson) spent the day in Art & Junior classes, and the Wang West staff reported they were fantastic.
We also have 7 students assisting at two other schools - Wangaratta Primary (Indi Elliott, Charlie Suffield and Olivia Wallace) and Appin Park Primary (Lucy Armstrong, Erin Collins, Lillian Hooper and Angela Keenan).
Our other large group is based at the Iloura Aged Care Home in College Street. There we had 10 girls (Rosie Bulmer, Tilly Gibson, Lily Herman, Thipp Kenesy. Skye Macdonald, Lizzie McNair, Junalyn Millama, Jacinta Snowdon, Letitia Williams and Emma Williams) assisting the residents, including painting nails and playing games.
Each Wednesday concludes with a Celebration Circle where we celebrate the day's highlights, and remind ourselves what it means to help others and show Empathy and Kindness. Overall this loos like being one of the best groups we've had in the program. Thank you to all students taking part.
Thank you also to our generous community groups who are kindly hosting our kids including:
Wangaratta West Primary School
Whitfield Community Childcare Centre
Iloura Aged Care
Anglicare Victoria - Loaves & Fishes
For more info on this powerful program which we’ve been running for almost 20 years, see last year’s Celebration of C.L.C Publication:
https://issuu.com/.../clc_2023_-_a_celebration_of_the_year
Jud Mullins
CLC Coordinator