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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The initiative is aimed at sending eight young people from the youth group as well as 20 from Ballarat RISE to the event.<\/p>\n
“The children went up last year and really enjoyed it,” said youth group leader Dannielle Cooper.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“You don’t know what you’re getting as you bid away at the auction.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The fundraising initiative is being supported by the town’s Christian, Anglican, Rise, Uniting, and Catholic churches, as well as the Werribee Baptist Church.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ms Cooper said the initiative is particularly needed to support the region’s young people.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
The blind auction will run from 7pm tomorrow at the Bacchus Marsh Baptist Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n