Charity Committee
This week the Westlake Boys’ Charity Council organised a whole school second hand clothing donation for the North Shore Hospice.
The Charity Council, led by seventh form student Daniel Lee, was instigated at the start of 2015 when students felt that the Westlake Community would benefit from a more structured fundraising approach, raising a substantial sum towards one annually chosen cause rather than smaller contributions towards a variety of causes over the year. For 2015, Hospice North Shore was chosen.
Hospice North Shore is a local charity in the Westlakers community that provides compassionate, specialist care to people who are dying, while supporting their families and caregivers. Over the years many Westlake families and the wider Westlake community have experienced the special care and compassion of Hospice North Shore first hand and the council’s first task was a well organised mufti day, raising the wonderful sum of $ 2,364.80.
Last month the Charity Council commemorated in assembly the tenth anniversary of the passing of Wayne Reynolds. Wayne, a seventh form student in 2005, lost his battle with leukaemia and the council shared Wayne’s amazing story of courage and his legacy with our students. The council raised awareness of the New Zealand Blood Donation services during the course of the week as well as the importance of New Zealand’s Hospice facilities. Wayne spent his last days at Hospice North Shore surrounded by his family.
This week the council organised three days of collecting second hand clothing donations from our Westlake Boys families. The donations were collected by Hospice North Shore on Wednesday and the team were very thankful for the work the council have done to raise awareness and funds to support those in our community who need Hospice care.
With one more fundraising opportunity scheduled in term 4 for the junior students it has been a very successful inaugural year for the Charity Council. For its members Darren Zhang, James Parkes, Antoine Ellis, Tony Guo, Nicolas Dwight, Michael Oentardi, Ashton Reiser, Laith Saeed and Greg Vukets it has definitely been an enlightening experience. It’s efforts for a greater charitable spirit at Westlake Boys will only get stronger over years to come with the continued support of Westlake staff and especially Mrs Young.
Community Service Group
The Westlake Boys Community Service Group was established last year to assist the Westlake community helping out with the Red Cross annual street appeal and a visit to the residents of Forrest Hill Home and Hospital in Bond Crescent for a chat and help out with some general chores around the home.
This year a large number of students have again given up their time to visit the elderly throughout the year and in addition to this, the residents were treated to some musical performances by Westlake’s Barbershop quartet with Ritchie Li on flute and Riley Cahill on piano. The appreciative crowd enjoyed every visit and the residents always remarked on how polite and friendly our young men were.
This year the group also assisted at Forrest Hill Primary School with their reading programme. Every Monday and Wednesday morning from 8-8.30 am the group helped young readers to develop their reading as well as developing relationships, working closely with the young students. The programme allowed many of the Forrest Hill Primary School children to boost their confidence in mastering the art of reading.
Many thanks to Community Service Group members: Alex Burton, Jimmy Chen, Jacob De Jonge, Tianrui Guan, Jack Jiang, John Jiang, Harry Kim, James Kim, Maric Kim, Joseph Lee, Ritchie Li, Tiger Li, Dalton Lim, Andrew Mei, Michael Oentardi, Eric Park, Min Ghi Park, Rengen Parlane, Liam Rawlings, Laith Saeed, Martin Shen, Tony Shen, David Song, Gun Woo Song, Andre Vachias, Simon Weng, Benjamin Xie, Hai Hong Yang, Vincent Yang, Mark Zhang and Bill Zhou.