“On Friday 22 November, the Salesian College Connections group visited our friends at the Oakleigh Connections centre. After lunch we rushed to the bus, but we were missing Sam and Sebastian, Lucky Ethan found them! In excitement we hopped on the bus on our way to meet our friends from Connections.
The Connections Program for us is when people with disabilities come and visit every Friday, and we play ball games and socialise with them. When we arrived at the centre, we found out what else they do as an organisation. We discovered that OC Connections provide programs and activities for people with disabilities, for example painting, gardening, city experience and more, as well as provide education in cooking and other important life skills. To find out more about Connections and how you can support them check out this link.
We had a blast with Kel, Rodger, Tyson, Dave and some other familiar and not so familiar faces. Some of the boys played tennis, soccer and tossed the ball around, and met various people from the start of the year and the year before, when we first started Connections. We went with around 10 boys from Salesian, including Kaiden, Timothy, Sebastian, Ruchith, Horatio, Will, Sam and Gabe.
Ethan and I both had a memorable day. Ethan thought that this visit was the best moment of Year 8. He loves going to Connections. I believe that Connections is a great way to socialise and get to know others. Ethan’s intial reason for starting Connections was that he wanted to be with his friends, but then he started to like Connections and showed up every week. I volunteer as I love to help others and want to provide an enjoyable, fun and educational experience for some of the Connections people.
The Connections group enjoy their time with us. We can tell by the massive smile on Dave’s face when he greets us and by Kel ‘s signature thumbs up.
Christmas Trees
If you are in the market for a fresh, quality Christmas tree, why not buy one from our friends at Oakleigh Connections?
Since the early 1960s, OC Connections has been selling Christmas trees to raise funds for their programs. Each year, they source fresh quality trees from a local farm. They also have a Christmas tree shop that offers beautiful cards, decorations and high quality tree stands.
You can pre-order your Christmas tree to pick up from OC Connections.
Their shop is open from 30 November to 2pm 22 December.
Monday to Friday: Open 1pm to 6pm
Saturday to Sunday: Open 8am to 6pm
Located at 773 Warrigal Road Oakleigh
Call the shop on 0400 654 886 for more info or click here.
– By Ethan and Malakai
