Junior
Chamber International (JCI) Eastern member, Suzi Chen, was surprised by the
generosity of the local community in supporting the recent stationery drive. “We
were approached by a university honour society to run a stationery drive
initiative to help remote Australian communities. Our chapter members have
always been very much about communities, so we all agreed that this initiative
was a good idea. We just did not expect the overwhelming support that we
received for this event,” Ms Chen said.
The
2-week Stationery Drive in late August was a joint initiative by both JCI
Eastern and Deakin Golden Key, an honour society based in Deakin University.
The Stationery Drive urged people to donate new and pre-loved stationery, which
were then donated to Children’s Charity Network to assist disadvantaged
Indigenous children in remote Australian towns with their learning.
Deakin
Golden Key Vice President and Community Services Officer, Sarah Neil, spent
hours sorting the donated items after the initiative ended and reported an
astonishing number of donations received. “10,966. That's the total of major
stationery items raised from the drive. If I also counted smaller items, the
number of donations would be higher! I was in shock by this unprecedented
success,” Miss Neil commented.
“We
had the support from local schools, communities and businesses. They will be so
thrilled to learn about the success of this stationery drive. In fact, one
local schools was so keen about this initiative that they have asked if we
could run it again in November,” JCI Eastern Chapter President, Ben Morris,
added.
To
get involved with JCI Eastern, a local chapter of the world-wide JCI network,
click here.
