BENDIGO student Natasha Joyce is raising money for a Northern Territory school in response to a Katy Perry and Telstra competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Last month, the American singer chose Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak as the winner of the This is How We Do our School competition.
The competition, sponsored by Telstra, required schools to submit videos about what makes their school "special, unique and inspirational", with the winning school being awarded $10,000 and a visit by Katy Perry.
Some media outlets criticised Ms Perry's decision to give the elite private school the prize money over needier schools such as Clyde Fenton in Katherine.
Clyde Fenton is located in a remote part of Australia and many students come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.
In response to the article, Ms Joyce decided to raise money for Clyde Fenton herself.
"When I saw that Katy Perry - and her corporate sponsor Telstra - had selected a wealthy private school in Melbourne to win a $10,000 prize for their arts program, despite the fact that a less fortunate entrant didn't even have a program to begin with, I thought, 'Why not just ask people to crowd fund the school directly?" she said.
"I contacted the school and asked for permission to use their images and logo and they happily gave me their full blessing.
"Ten thousand will be of considerably greater value to a public, remote school than a private, Melbourne school that already receives so much funding."
Ms Joyce was referring to the fact the prize money was to go to the winning school's arts program.
Ms Joyce has raised more than $5000 for the school so far, and intends to double that.
Principal Warwick Peter-Budge said the school was grateful for Ms Joyce's help.
"Any fundraising is useful to us," he said.
"It was an initiative we thought about doing ourselves in a similar way but we were surprised someone from the public took the next step."
He said the school would use the money to "stock up our art resources".
To donate, visit fundrazr.com/campaigns/dtvI4 and follow the links.