When Castlemaine youngsters Kate Hemphill and Ainsley Nash heard about the impacts of the drought in NSW they decided they’d do something to help.
The two junior students at Castlemaine Primary School went direct to their principal Peter McConnell with a letter they’d penned outlining their proposal to help the drought-ravaged farmers.
“We wrote a note to Mr Mac because we wanted to help the farmers,” said Kate, who was also keen to help homeless Australians as well.
“There’s lots of people who need help in Australia and some of us aren’t actually helping them,” Kate observed.
As a direct result of that letter – and the added efforts of older students also anxious to help the farmers – the school hosted it’s own Parma for a Farmer event on Friday.
The Student Representative Council took to the school kitchen and whipped up 100-plus parmas for staff and students to buy with proceeds going to the farmers.
“It’s an initiative that’s come from the children,” impressed principal McConnell noted.
“As we know, we’ve got the issue with the farmers up north and that seems to have made a big impact on the kids.
“I think for the kids it’s about having that social awareness and acting on it – getting out there and actually doing something about it.
“It’s not been directed by the teachers or myself. It’s been grassroots if you like.”
The students and the staff seemed to be enjoying the process.
“It is a good thing to do because up in northern Australia there’s a big drought and it’s hard for them to feed their animals so giving a bit of aid to them is really good,” grade five student Jude Kenneally said as he prepared to line up for a parma.
Jude admitted he was quite partial to the occasional parma – “I’m only eating one today,” he said.
