Jon Cotaldo from MacKillop College and Grant Potter from Werribee Support and Housing. Picture: XAVIER SMERDON
By XAVIER SMERDON
WERRIBEE students have come up with a simple idea they hope will help one of Wyndham’s hardest working charity groups.
Fifteen students from MacKillop Catholic College in Werribee put their heads together to find a way to raise money for Uniting Care Werribee Support and Housing, a group that helps find emergency accommodation for Wyndham’s homeless community.
The school’s VCAL teacher, Scott Williams, said the students had shown great initiative and teamwork to develop their fundraising idea.
“They were told to investigate a community issue and think of ways to improve the situation and they chose homelessness,” Mr Williams said.
“They found this organisation, came here for a visit to see what they did and then brainstormed to see what they could do for them.”
The students have personally built 10 house shaped money boxes that will be placed all over Wyndham so that residents can make donations that will then be collected by Werribee Support and Housing staff.
Grant Potter, the Volunteer Coordinator at Werribee Support and Housing, said the organisation was in desperate need of funding.
“We run off the smell of an oily rag here,” Mr Potter said.
“We survive on funding and something like this is just amazing for us.”
Mr Potter said with no refuges or crises accommodation anywhere in the western suburbs, Werribee Support and Housing’s resources were constantly being stretched.
