HARD YAKKA: Jake Aarts shovels at Gold’s working bee at Bendigo Special Development School. Picture: JULIE HOUGH
The Bendigo Football Club has just completed its pre-season camp and it was a huge success.
We set out from early on to hold our camp in Bendigo with great opportunities to train hard and become more united as a group, but also provide positive outcomes for the community.
Our enthusiastic young men set about tackling several community activities throughout the camp and the feedback has been enormous.
On Friday night, the entire playing list attended the Golden Square Primary School fete, setting up stations, including a handball target competition and kick-to-kick on the oval.
They also ensured the huge numbers heading to the barbecue were well fed, the rock climbers were safe and the spinning wheel provided entertainment for the huge crowd.
On Saturday morning the groups divided into teams and were spread across the region.
We were involved in a gold coin donation car wash at St Luke’s in Hargreaves Street.
Our players attacked this with great enthusiasm and impressed all who were present.
At the Eaglehawk Cemetery, we set about cleaning and restoring a huge area of the grounds that had been washed away by recent rain and storms.
The players had a huge impact, even though most of them knocked back a tour of the crematorium.
Finally, and probably our biggest influence was at the Bendigo Special Development School in Kangaroo Flat.
What we were able to achieve in one morning, the school could not have done without disrupting the school day.
We demolished a boardwalk and removed all screws and nails from a mountain of timber making it safe or reusable as the school saw fit. We also ensured the remaining boardwalk was left safe for the students to use.
Having been involved here for a short time it was an impressive feat,
I personally would like to thank Golden Square Primary School, Rotary Bendigo, St Luke’s and Remembrance Parks Central Victoria for the opportunity to contribute to the community. I would also like to thank Subway Epsom, Crust Pizza and Big 4 White Hills for their efforts.
Finally, we can announce the winner of our first Bendigo Flight Centre Summer Cup, and it will come as no surprise, especially to the players.
Daniel Toman has set a huge benchmark for his team-mates to follow on and off the field.
Daniel receives return flights for two to the Gold Coast and accommodation package thanks to Flight Centre Bendigo.