My Kokoda Journey: Leadership and Community Activities

As well as my Kokoda journey being about getting to Kokoda it is also about leadership and being a positive part of the community. As such there have been a variety of activities we have been a part of as young leaders to help us in our journey. A big part of this was raising funds for the Menari Medical Centre along the Kokoda track and doing several different things to give back to the track we were going to complete in a matter of months (now days to me as I am writing this but actually happening as this is being published). We had a number of fundraising activities that we all completed amongst our schools and as a group. At our school myself and Caroline (the other person from my school going) organised a casual clothes day and raffle where we raised well over $600 for the Menari Medical Centre. As a group we had two separate chocolate drives where we each sold four boxes of Cadbury fundraising chocolates which also raised our total up a bit. Aside from that we also had a lot of barbecues to help us raise money. We had barbecues at the local Twilight market, Woolworths, Masters (along with a car wash) and Bunnings. This was another major money-raiser which again raised our total a lot. As a group we have currently raised over $13,000 for the Menari Medical Centre which will provide a fully-trained nurse for 12 months as well as some much needed medical equipment (that hopefully we will not need while we are over there).

Original Image Source (no text): http://www.ylead.com.au/travel/kokoda/

Aside from this fundraising we took part in a number of other community events. We took part in Rotary's Donations in Kind which I wrote a post about back in September of 2013 which you can read by clicking here. Basically, Donations in Kind is a charity run by the Rotary which packages unwanted goods (clothes, chairs, tables etc) and sends them over to impoverished countries and places. The first Donations in Kind we did was actually our first activity together as a group so it was a great opportunity for us to get to know each other. Even though there was still some awkward conversations on the bus ride home it was a lot more friendlier than when we all first met and barely anyone actually spoke. Aside from this Donations in Kind was actually a great way to give back to the wider community rather than just our local community. We had a second one of these just last month which was also a lot more fun and a lot less awkward as we all knew each other. I think we also managed to get a lot more done because of that and our communication to each other was an improvement ten-fold of what it was originally. Another aspect of our leadership activities was volunteering our time as supervisors at the local Wynbay Blue-Light Discos which are discos organised by the police for local primary-school-aged children who want to have fun in a safe environment. I went twice and both times I had a lot of fun doing it even though some of the kids could be a little energetic after having a slushy drink. A big event on our calendars which occurred just last month was the Soldier On Gala. Soldier On are one of our sponsors and they are a group of retired servicemen and women who assist those physically and emotionally scarred by their time in the armed forces. As part of their support, we supported them by helping them run a gala night they had organised to raise money for their organisation and for our program. On the night they had silent-auctions, live auctions, raffles, other mini-fundraisers, a celebrity comedian guest (Lehmo) and an ex-footballer (Justin Koschitzke [I had to Google how to spell that one]). It was a lot of fun and I helped out with Merchandise on the night as well as inputting all the information from the auctions and raffles. In total they raised over $20,000 on the night which was a great effort.

Being involved in this program has certainly opened me up to so many new and exciting opportunities. See you tomorrow.

Decisions, Decisions

You know how annoying it can be to make major decisions in a rush? Decisions like where to go, who to see and where to see Catching Fire are just impossible to make on limited time. The worst part is you can not stay silent and think about it first because then people just stare at each other in an awkward silence. Then this awkwardness just grows to an extent that by the time you have a decision it is too awkward to say anything and so the rest of the time is spent in silence. To avoid this you have to use filler words like "um", "er" or "uh" and after a while of doing this you just seem like a brain-dead idiot. It is just so hard to make decisions on the spot guys, do not put me under such pressure!

Source: http://9gag.com/gag/6866225

So think before you ask me these major decisions. How am I supposed to remember what my favourite movie is so that I can answer immediately after you ask? It just makes me look like an idiot when I go "Hunger Games... no! Catching Fire.... no! Hunger Games" and it gets worse once people realise that Catching Fire has not being released yet and they realise I am presuming this. When you ask me where I want to go do not expect a straight answer. Of the trillions of locations within our world how am I supposed to know where I want to go at that exact moment. Unless I need to go to the toilet really badly I will have no idea. Even then, when someone asks where you want to go "Toilet" is in no way a valid answer. It just leads to an awkward silence and a hasty change of subject. How should I know what I want from the store? I have literally milliseconds to come up with something and then I say something stupid that I will never need like tampons or a life. I mean, come on guys. If you ask me hastily you are going to get a hasty response. Now questions like what do you want to be when you are older, what are you going to study in VCE, do you want to be resuscitated should the need arise are ones that do not require as much thought. Just remember that where I want to watch Catching Fire is going to be a major decision and turning point in my life so do not expect me to answer you immediately, I need time.

So next time you ask any of these important questions, do not expect a responsible answer. See you tomorrow!

Fundraising

So the trouble with going to a school with so many fundraisers (besides the constant loss of money) is that when it comes time to have one you have no idea what to do because most of them have already being done. As those of you who have been reading this blog for some time may know that I am part of a leadership program run by Wyndham Police called 'Leaders of the Future'. Part of this program (the culmination in fact) is walking 96 kilometres of the Kokoda Track. Some of what we are doing involves raising money for a local Health Centre in the village of Menari which is along the track. So now that it comes time to think of brainstorming ideas with the other person from my school who is also doing the program we are at a bit of a loss. Damn you charitable school.

Source: http://desktopmag.com.au/project-wall/fundraising-downunder-logo/

Do not ask me why I chose that picture. I used Google to image search "Fundraising" and that was the only one that caught my eye. Do not judge me. Anyway, so I spoke to one of the assistant principals at my school and managed to secure the casual clothes day at the end of term for our cause. The thing with our school is most end-of-terms (except the end of year since we all finish different days) are casual clothes days to raise money for whatever organisation in the school puts their hand up for it (or organises) it first. If no one organises it then there is no casual clothes day. That was the easy part. The hard part is thinking of other things we can do on the day to raise even more money. We can not do a talent show as so many other groups have already done that this year. A guess-the-lollies in the jar competition is also out of the question as they only just did that a few weeks ago for the 40 Hour Famine. I was thinking of maybe doing a raffle with jars of lollies as prizes or something. That way there could be more than one prize and we could get away with charging more than 50 cents a ticket. Anyway, I better leave it at this as it is getting late.

Why does our school have to be so damn charitable? See you tomorrow!