Mount Evelyn
2 Tuesday, 13 December, 2016
Christmas de-stress
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Equal view of life By Jodie Symonds MOUNT Evelyn Primary School’s Grade 5 and 6 students are sending an important message about stigmatisation and people with disabilities. View every person as an equal. After the completion of the One Community project, students Zac and Mackenzie said it had taught them a lot about equality. “I didn’t know much about disabilities, but after this I learned that everybody needs to be treated the same,” MacKenzie said. “It’s been good to understand how different their lives are to ours and what they do everyday. “...and it made me realise how people treat others when they look or act different on the outside - but they really aren’t that different.” The school worked with Yarra Ranges Council and Melba Support Services, who care and support for those with disabilities, to help the fight against stigmatisation. One Community aims at teaching primary school-aged students that everybody is equal, and to help decrease the social stigmatisation some people associate with those who have disabilities. In a school assembly held at Mount Evelyn Primary School on Friday 9 December, organiser of the project, Sarina Bunnett from Melba Support Services, said
since she had injured her back and used a wheel chair, she was instantly treated differently when she was seen in public. “Since using it (the wheelchair) people treat me different I’m no different, I’m better,” Ms Bunnett said. “They would stare at me, make comments. I stopped dying my hair and now it’s a nice shade of grey ... so then I was looked at as the old lady in a wheelchair. “It does hurt me.” Throughout the project, students hand-painted reusable bags that were given to people with disabilities through Melba. In the assembly, the bags were given back to students to raise awareness. “We want the bags to be seen all over Mount Evelyn,” Ms Bunnett said. The project was aimed to be a fun and informative way to teach the students. Two representatives from each Grade 5/6 class received the bags for their class in the presentation. Last year, the One Community project together with Mount Evelyn Primary School students created a canvas artwork that is now on display at Melba Support Service’s Lilydale campus. For more information about the project, visit melbasupport. com.au
Christmas spirit about
THE Christmas spirit is alive and well in Mount Evelyn, if Saturday’s Children’s Christmas Carols event is anything to go by. See full picture gallery of event on page 3. Pictured are Olivia, 3, Pippa, 8, and Nathan, 3, who loved Captain Picture: GREG CARRICK Koala and KC the Neighbourhood Watch Dog. 163097
Santa will be here for photos
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