On the 17th of November, 20 boys from Johnstone and Kelynack Houses assembled outside Centenary Hall with a quiet anticipation, excited for the day ahead at the Woolworth’s Yennora distribution centre where they would be packing candle bags to be sold at Woolworths Carols in the Domain to raise funds for Oasis, our House charity. The group was led by Mr Mountain and Mr Burgess who had experience with this activity before.

After a long drive to the warehouse, the boys were greeted in the carpark by two jovial Salvation Army volunteers who handed out fluoro vests and then escorted the boys into the warehouse. We assembled in a meeting room with other volunteers who had also come to pack candle bags. Everyone received a safety briefing from the operations manager of the centre and then we went down to the floor ready to start our work.

The boys were given a demo of how to pack the bags and then split into a few different groups, some would be packing the bags, others would restock the supplies and at the end of the line a couple would tie up the bags and pack them into crates for them to be trucked out to the event.

The packing started at a slow pace as everyone was finding their feet and trying to discover the most efficient way of packing but after about 15 minutes everyone seemed to be moving at a really good pace. This continued for about an hour and a half where the 40 strong group paused to take part in a few activities before getting back into it. These activities included guessing the combined value of the bag if it was sold at its retail value, compared to the bargain of $20 that it would be offered for at the Carols in the Domain, and a competition to see who could pack one of the bags in the shortest period of time. Newington claimed victory in both of these with Jasper Luck-Chee (10/JN) and Mr Mountain winning the two events and a bag for themselves.

We got back into the bag packing but time seemed to be going really fast as we pushed through the last thousand or so bags to finish the quota required for the event. This led to all of us having 40 minutes to go nuts in the incredible cafeteria that they had there, which had incredibly low prices and delicious food for all the boys to enjoy.

It was an extremely good day out for all the boys who got to experience the inner workings of a production line, while also doing their bit to help those who need it most. Hopefully, the next group of boys who take part in this service adventure will enjoy and take as much out of it as myself and others who went did.

 Max Hochuli (10/JN)