Victorian Schoolkids Turn Their Compassion into Action

Victorian Schoolkids Turn Their Compassion into Action

Nangiloc Public School is located in one of Victoria's largest citrus growing regions, and ninety-five percent of the school's parents work in the citrus industry. Drought, then floods and now poor commodity prices have recently driven the industry into crisis.

In an endeavour to increase awareness in the general public, to stimulate the local economy and to promote a healthy life style, the concept of an Orange Drive was developed. The children of Nangiloc Public School have worked with the Murray Valley Citrus Board to develop posters, fliers and their very own bag label. The children buy the oranges from a local packer and sell them on to other schools and organisations. Participating groups keep a $1.00, Nangiloc Public keeps $1.00, and the remaining money is used to pay the packers, growers and workers - most of whom are the schoolchildren's parents.

In this inspiring example of philanthropy in action, everyone's a winner - participating schools and companies get to experience fresh oranges, the economy gets a small boost and the children are proactively contributing to their local industry and community!

Nangiloc Public is just one of many schools entered so far in SchoolAid's 2011 Kids Helping Kids Awards, a program designed to recognise and reward the outstanding fundraising taking place in Aussie schools across the nation every day. Schools are encouraged to enter their fundraising work undertaken to support kids in crisis, whether it is for their local community, across Australia or around the world.

In other fantastic news, DealsDirect are proud to announce their support for the 2011 Awards, sponsoring our celebrity Ambassador visits to the six Award winning schools in December, and providing all Awards finalist schools with a $300 voucher. DealsDirect CEO, Simon Kelly says, " We are thrilled to be supporting this exciting initiative. As an Australian owned and operated online retailer, we are delighted to align ourselves with the powerful grass-roots work that SchoolAid does in Aussie schools and communities."

Visit www. schoolaid.org.au/awards for all the details on the Kids Helping Kids Awards.