In 2012 our inaugural Earlyact group was established in conjunction with Wyndham Rotary. This group was the first Earlyact group in Victoria. Our year 6 student leaders from our Tarneit Campus were our inaugural members. Earlyact has three committees of focus: International, Community and School.
Each committee identified a focus for their group. The International Committee raised funds to build a toilet block at a school in Bangladesh. They worked with Footscray Rotary in achieve this and the toilet block was completed by February 2013. The Community group identified the development of literacy skills in your children as being extremely important. They negotiated with the local Childcare Centre and spent a session reading and working with the children. Prior to this visit they selected booked and developed the activities to complete with the children. The School committee developed a project to start reducing litter at the school. They created a competition which resulted in selected students painting slogans and picture on some of our rubbish bins.
In 2013 the Earlyact group was extended to include the year 6 student leaders at our Derrimut Heath Campus. The group meet on a fortnightly basis with students being transported between campuses on our College bus. Some of the inaugural 2012 members are acting as mentors for our 2013 group. The International Committee, after listening to guest speakers, is collecting books for schools in Cambodia. They are working with Donations in Kind, a Rotary organisation, to ship these books to Cambodia. They are also raising funds to purchase rice to feed the students while at school. The money from this initiative will be taken to Cambodia by a Rotary delegation who is visiting in January 2014. They will purchase the rice once they arrive on Cambodia. The School Group organised the Biggest Morning Tea at each campus, raising funds for Breast Cancer Australia. They are currently working on initiatives to reduce litter in our school yards. The Community Committee identified reducing bullying as focus. They have created an anti-bullying video which emphasised the role of the bystanders in reducing bullying.