Parramatta students raise drought funds for Gilgandra High

Each year Parramatta High School’s Justice League students choose a worthy cause and this year they chose Gilgandra High School because of the drought.

“They’ve raised thousands of dollars for this,” said Gilgandra High School’s head maths teacher Steve Schier.

“They’ve had dress up days and fundraising barbecue, out of uniform days all sorts of things to raise funds.

“It is a massive achievement.”

 Twenty Parramatta High School students and their teachers will be on a road-trip to Gilgandra and on Thursday, November 29 will be spending the money they have raised locally.

Mr Schier said the idea was for the city students to provide a much-needed cash injection to rural businesses while, some money would be kept aside by Gilgandra High School to use at its’ discretion for students in need.

Many of the Parramatta students had not travelled beyond the Blue Mountains and were looking forward to experiencing all that Gilgandra had to offer.

“They’re going to come out, they’ve got money to spend. They didn’t want to be spending the money down at Parramatta they wanted to be spend it up here,” said Mr Schier. They’ve booked accommodation at the caravan park.

“A lot of the (Gilgandra) kids probably won’t get a holiday so we decided we’ll give them a holiday in our own town. We’re going to have a day off the books,” said Mr Schier.

Students will see the Visitors Centre, Rural Museum, play bare foot bowls, spend time in Hunter Park and the swimming pool and enjoy tabloid sports at the high school. They will also visit a local farm and hear first-hand about the drought.

“City people do care. They realise the impact that the drought is having on our communities, and it’s not just the farming communities it’s the whole community,” he said.