Auction to support young history makers

COMBINED churches at Bacchus Marsh are calling on the community to help send children from two western Victorian youth groups to a religious conference aimed at facilitating friendship.

With young members of Kingdom Culture Youth group having attended the annual History Makers Conference last year, organisers are keen to send a group once more.

In order to raise the $3000 needed to send the group to Bendigo in early October for the event, a blind auction night is scheduled to take place tomorrow night.

The initiative is aimed at sending eight young people from the youth group as well as 20 from Ballarat RISE to the event.

“The children went up last year and really enjoyed it,” said youth group leader Dannielle Cooper.

“The conference is for young people to explore faith and meet other young positive people. Our theme for this term has been friendship so we decided we’d go with a blind auction.

“Everything’s wrapped up, just like a friendship can be; you never know what you’re getting in a friendship or the value of your friendship to somebody.

“You don’t know what you’re getting as you bid away at the auction.”

Food on the night will be provided through Domino’s Pizza’s Feed the Knead program, with auction prizes supplied by local businesses and makers.

The fundraising initiative is being supported by the town’s Christian, Anglican, Rise, Uniting, and Catholic churches, as well as the Werribee Baptist Church.

The local youth group is comprised of children between grade 6 and year 12 ages and meet every Saturday during the school term to undertake activities and engage with community.

Ms Cooper said the initiative is particularly needed to support the region’s young people.

“A lot of our youth have struggled with friendship, not fitting in at school and battling a lot of the town’s local issues like substance abuse, homelessness, and disconnection,” she said.

“Our youth group for the last 12 months have been focused on providing a space for anyone in the community at grade 6 to year 12 to explore friendship and support each other in different ways.”

The blind auction will run from 7pm tomorrow at the Bacchus Marsh Baptist Church.