FOLLOWING on from the donation of 200 guernseys to the Katherine community during the Club’s recent trip, New Balance’s ongoing commitment to indigenous communities has continued. 

They recently provided 100 pairs of shoes to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thamarrurr (OLSH) Catholic School - located in Wadeye, Port Keats, about 400km from Darwin - for two student trips.

OLSH School is an accredited bilingual school (Murrinhpatha and English) with many local indigenous staff as teachers, assistant teachers and literacy workers.

The school encourages cultural links with its community through a Cultural/Literacy Production Centre for language resource production. 

The school has 607 students from preschool to Year 12.

Recently, the school had two groups going on educational excursions. Finding themselves in desperate need of shoes, in stepped New Balance (pardon the pun). 

The students were extremely excited when they were issued with their new shoes, essential in order to board the plane, and for other events on the trip.

The first trip was a careers excursion to Katherine. Thirty senior students took part in the three day trip, which was to a big Careers Expo. 

The itinerary also included a "Try a Trade" day and a visit to the RAAF base, exploring career options. 

All students certainly got the most out of their shoes, with hikes around Katherine Gorge, Katherine River and to the Mataranka Hot Springs.

The second trip involved twenty-five Years 5 and 6 students travelling to Canberra for five days. The itinerary included a snow trip to Perisher, along with visits to Questacon, AIS and Parliament House.

Both trips were a resounding success, and we thank New Balance, along with Wild Geese Building and Maintenance Group who have a great connection with the school and facilitated the distribution, for being a major part of this great learning experience, shared with the young men and women from Our of Lady Sacred Thamurruru Catholic School.