A group of kids have headed back to school sporting shiny new backpacks – and all the gear to put in them – this week, thanks to the generosity of Wollongong police officers and community members.
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There were tears of joy as officers armed the boys and girls with all the back-to-school essentials – pencils, paper, glue sticks, crayons and more – during a special event at Bellambi last week.
The handover of gear happened during the last session of the six-week ‘Fit for Life’ program – a NSW Police and PCYC initiative aimed at engaging youth who are at-risk of poor choices and anti-social behaviour.
The kids also got a surprise visit from a Polair helicopter.
Wollongong Police District commander Superintendent Chris Craner said some of the city’s cops chipped in their own money to put together the back-to-school packs. The initiative was also supported by members of the Wollongong community and retail stores in the city.
“The kids that came to the program, some of those would not receive these sort of quality packs going back to school,” Supt Craner said.
Bigger packs were handed to kids who had been to three or more ‘Fit for Life’ sessions; others received smaller ones.
“Some of them were almost in tears, and I’m told a couple of the kids were in tears,” he said. “[You could see] the excitement when we handed out these packs, when they opened them up and saw everything there.
“If they’ve got anxiety about going back to school because they don’t have the trendiest pencils, or crayons, or textas, then we’ve got it for them. I think they can go to school pretty much loud and proud, going ‘look what I’ve got, I’ve got all the gear, I’m ready to go’.”
Fit for Life allows kids to get outside, have fun and exercise with police officers, in the hope of changing their attitudes towards the cops. The Bellambi sessions have involved boxing, tug of war and touch football games.
“There’s kids that have seen both sides of the law,” Supt Craner said. “I’d rather have my staff chasing kids on a touch football oval, in good faith having fun, than chasing after kids at two o’clock in the morning….”