On Sunday 29 May, the Black and White army, made up of more than 330 boys from Years 10,11 and 12 plus more than 105 parents and staff, took to the streets of the Inner West for the annual Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal.

Nicholas Adgemis (12/JN) and Taylan Behayi (12/FL) were amongst the formidable Newington crew who door knocked in Dulwich Hill and Marrickville; they found that the greatest challenge of the day was being rejected from door-to-door. Nicholas said, “We overcame this challenge by moving on to the next house and collecting more donations. Door knocking service learning activities involve communication and social skills, so boys should always be prepared for the unexpected.”

Taylan agreed saying that the rejection was harder to take when you could hear movement inside the house but still no one came to the door. However he said he developed a thicker skin by the end of the day by understanding that the Appeal is by donation only and that the job required him to serve something bigger than himself rather than get downtrodden by rejection.

He also devised a clever way of writing up receipts to encourage more donations. “I developed a system of filling in the receipts with the most common amounts of donations before knocking on the doors and asking for donations,” Taylan said. “That way I would not have to waste time writing up the receipt for all the people giving donations.”

By the end of the day the boys raised $21,500 in cash with more to come from envelop donations. 

Once again, we would like to thank all our parents, friends and staff who came along to volunteer as drivers on the day. It’s not everyday that our extended community gets together for initiatives such as these, but it’s truly heart warming to see the strength, generosity and positivity of our Black and White community.

Mr Mick Madden
Head of Service Learning