By TANIA PHILLIPS
THE Tweed Heads PCYC now has a new 25-seater Mitsubishi Fuso thanks to a $120,000 helping hand from the Twin Towns Community Foundation.
Since 1999 the club has operated with a 14 seater mini-bus but has well and truly outgrown this vehicle particularly with its after school care service, vacation care, access for schools and other uses including other community groups.
Foundation chairman David Phillips said the group was more than happy to help out.
“I guess what struck us about the PCYC’s request is the range of people they get out to – the spread of people they are involved with,” he said.
“They get into a significant part of the community and a part of the community that really needs assistance. There are a lot of other facilities where the kids are quite well-off. I just think this is a well-organised organisation and obviously we like to support the police. The police assist Twin Towns greatly as a group and we feel like we are giving them something back and helping out.”
PCYC manager Mark Madden described the new larger bus as a `God-send’.
“With our after school care service we pick up 30 kids or so some afternoons from six different schools which involves three trips and now with the new bus we are looking at one or two trips at the most of an afternoon.
“In addition we need to hire buses if taking kids on an excursion up the Coast with vacation care. Plus local schools find transport a real issue in terms of availability and cost and now we can provide assistance to get them to us a lot more easily.
“We greater appreciate the generosity and support of the Twin Towns Foundation, who provide significant funding to many great community organisations and causes each year.”
The group has been exploring funding for its bus for a number of years.
The Tweed Heads PCYC is largely a self-funded organisation and provides more than 20 different activities and services including a variety of sports, fitness activities and facilities, childcare, martial arts, dance classes, music activities including a band practice space, young offender support, Sunday morning markets and is also used by a variety of other community agencies including the Tweed Heads Community Pre-school, Twin Towns University of the Third Age (with activities for seniors), Southern Cross University and more.
