By Victoria Stone-Meadows
STUDENTS and staff at Belgrave Heights Christian School will be raising money by participating in a 24-hour Ping-Pong-A-Thon.
Students and staff raise money through sponsorship for the playing stint that will go towards freeing people from sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Participating members of the school community will play non-stop ping pong from 9am, Friday 7th October to 9am, Saturday 8th October.
The event will take place in more than 60 sites across Australia during October in an aim to raise $400,000 to support nine organisations in South East Asia tackling human trafficking and sexual exploitation of young people.
Belgrave Heights Christian School Chaplain Nick Crawley organised for the school to get involved this year and says it is too worthwhile a cause not to.
“I heard about what they were doing and heard about combining the fun with justice side of it, and thought it would be a great thing for the school to be involved in,” he said.
“It is something tangible and practical for the students here, they hear about these awful things, but here they can actually do something by playing ping pong.”
“Whether it is for a whole period, a few hours after school or into the night, it is an active way we can get involved.”
There are currently about 320 students from the school scheduled to play throughout the day, as well as parents and members of the wider school community getting involved and playing too.
Mr Crawley said the school community have really rallied behind the event and even his son was on hand to help out.
“It’s a great cause and good to raise money for it and this is a great way to do it, everyone loves a bit of ping pong,” Josh Crawley said.
People of all ages are invited to participate in The Pong by registering online, engaging their friends and family as sponsors and committing to play table tennis for three hours during the event at their preferred location.
The Belgrave Heights event is a school-only event, but the wider community is invited to get involved by sponsoring a participating student.
To sponsor or find out more, visit: www.pingpongathon.com
