This year on a Friday, I have been studying Certificate IV in Business at North Metropolitan TAFE. This has been a great course to study as it has set me up for when I leave School. In addition to completing the course, my fellow students undertook roles to help the charity Operation Christmas Child raise funds to get donations to send to children in Less Developed countries.
Operation Christmas Child is a Christian, non-government funded charity and relies solely on the generosity of our local community for contributions. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of this project this year: the outcome was truly astonishing. Inside the shoebox people could put bought items for either a girl or boy, either aged between 2-4 years, 5-9 years and 10-14 years.
In order to assist Operation Christmas child, our class had to develop individual presentations to a group of people to inform them about the charity how they could help. The opportunity to help Operation Christmas child is a life changing experience. To know that we have helped 17 children in countries less fortunate than ours is an incredible achievement. I have always been a person who loves getting involved and helping people in need, so this was just an experience I will never forget and I feel so privileged to have been a part of being able to help.
As part of fundraising for monetary donations, we decided to have a bake sale of brownies, dress up and have a photo area where people could pay $1 to have a photo with us. It was a great way to raise money and easy way to for others to give to the charity. I decided to dress up as Cinderella for this event and the results were unbelievable. I had so many little girls and boys come up to me on the day, asking to have a photo with me. Just seeing their little faces light up in awe terrific. Everyone who bought a brownie from the stall that day complimented us on our wish to support our community.
In total during the year we raised over $300 for the charity and collected more than 17 full boxes. It was a unique way for us to complete our Certificate IV through learning about teamwork and delegation of tasks.
The end of the semester was Friday 15 September 2017. We gave a Final Presentation and held a morning tea. We invited some VIPs to celebrate our achievements. After the Final Presentation, we handed the boxes over to Operation Christmas Child to their warehouse to then ship the shoeboxes to countries such as Cambodia and Thailand.
Written by Rhiannon Bowler (Year 12)