Our project idea came about when we were brainstorming things that were special about Altona and some things that could do with a bit of improvement. One of the special things about our town is the beach, and we have noticed that it is a very popular place to go but not everyone is always safe there or aware of the dangers present at the beach. We have also realized that there often is a lot of litter at the beach and the harm this can cause to local wildlife and the environment. The project will be able to benefit the whole community by creating a safer and cleaner environment at the beach for everyone and specifically the year 9s at Altona College as they will become more educated about the beach.

Our vision is for a community where we can create a safer environment at Altona beach for year 9 students by raising awareness of the risks that can occur and understanding how to keep safe at the beach. Also educating them on the importance and our responsibility of keeping our beach clean by hosting an educational and entertaining day at the beach.

Our project will entail an educational day out at the beach with the whole year 9 cohort. We will split the cohort in half, having half attend an approximately 2-hour safety lesson with Altona Surf Life Saving Club in the morning, to educate them on things such as rips, CPR and other vital information we can use to help us survive in case of any unfortunate situations. The other half will involve partaking in some community service, cleaning up along the shores of our beloved beach and the surrounding areas.

Wednesday the 13th we performed our CLP. Since returning from Snowy, the 8 of us and our liaison teacher congregated weekly in preparation for our CLP.

We visited an age care home (Mayflower) to play games and varies arts and craft, while Xavier played a variety of Christmas songs. The Afternoon went smoothly and both parties benefited greatly.

We were praised and reassured that the residents deeply enjoyed our company.

Here are some photos from the day.

We chose a food drive to be our idea because there are a lot of people within our community who are homeless, or financially unstable who aren’t always able to afford or access food.

Our vision is to do this by advertising on our schools Instagram and Facebook to let people know about our idea and so that we get more people to participate. People would be able to donate canned goods and other preserved food items to us, then we would go to the charity of our choice and hand the food into them to give to people around our community that are in need of it. We would base this at school so the parents can get involved with easy access of sending your child to school with their donatable items. But if it goes further we could do something on a weekend so more people get to donate. We would try and get all the work done sometime in term 3 so that when term 4 comes we are all ready to make it happen.

Our CLP Mission is to help the people who help the community.

We chose to raise money for the Benalla Lions Club, as they help the town. Benalla has a lot of broad issues, and we wanted to do something community oriented. Many of us have been involved previously in programs that helped the community, so we wanted to give something back. We all wanted to raise money for different things, so choosing the Lions Club was a logical choice to cover everything.

We chose to fundraise at the 5/6 hub of Benalla P-12 College because at that age, the students start to realize their values and what changes they feel need to be implemented. Targeting this demographic seemed like the right thing to do.

We chose to do a sport fun raiser because sport games are something that everyone can get involved in, and it will help make stronger connections within the school. It will also make stronger connections within the community, by improving situations in the town.

Our project will benefit everyone in the community, as what we are fundraising for has no specific set cause, it is to help the community in itself.

To have a fulfilling life, people need a sense of community to feel as if they can make the best of what is around them, so building stronger bonds with each other will help people have a sense of home.

We all care about where we live, so taking the opportunity to attend the School for Student Leadership was a great way to give back to the place we love.

We have achieved so much in the CLP classes and hope to raise a lot of money for our local Lions Club association. We will run a sausage sizzle at the year 5/6 campus to raise money for the Benalla Lions, because we love how much they positively contribute to the community.