In Year 10, I had the special opportunity to be involved in another service program working with the school service partners. I chose to be a Nulsen Youth Patron along with 9 others, which involved liasing with Nulsen Disability Services to visit a few Nulsen Disability Residents fortnightly, and spend time to participate in recreational activities of their choice (such as basketball and painting) with them. I loved spending time with them because they always had so many interesting things to share, and we were able to form great friendships with each other. One of the residents even taught me how to shoot a basketball hoop with my eyes closed!
As Nulsen Youth Patrons, we also created, organised, and ran fundraisers (such as the annual Nulsen Quiz Night and Connected Art Exhibition) to raise awareness and money for the cause.
Nulsen Quiz Night
The annual Nulsen Quiz Night is organised and run by Nulsen Youth Patrons each year at All Saints, and is an fundraising event which students, parents, members of ASC and of the public can participate in.
In preparation for the Nulsen Quiz Night, we divided the jobs among us Patrons based on our strengths and passions. In the group, I was strongest in research skills and reliability to communicate with the others. Therefore, I was responsible for the creation/organisation of the quiz questions. I gained the approval of all the questions by the other patrons, as well as people of different ages to gather their valuable input and perspective to create the most suitable quiz questions. Other patrons were in charge of the decorations, communications, and intermission games. We also held weekly meetings to discuss our progress, reassign tasks if needed, and contribute ideas. Collecting an abundance of diverse prize donations that would be desirable silent auction and/or raffle prizes to a wide variety of people was one of the most important and difficult tasks that we all tackled. Many prizes and donations were cosmetics and beauty related which mainly targeted the stereotypical female demographic. To diversify our prizes, I contacted Bunnings Warehouse who generously donated a fire pit with a cooking grill, barbeque tools, and a plastic play slide, and also the Fremantle Dockers Donation Foundation who donated a 2022 Team Signed Guernsey.
During the night, my role was to sell raffle tickets to people for large and small raffle prizes, and had an absolute blast talking to others and watching all of our hardwork over the term come together. The quiz night was very successful, raising a total profit of $2811.40, but more importantly all of us felt an immense feeling of accomplishment at the end of the night to have achieved something of this magnitude together for a cause we were all passionate about. It also made me realise the amount of work that goes on behind-the-scenes of fundraisers and events to make them successful, and now fully appreciate the people who make it possible.
Nulsen Connected Art Exhbition
As Nulsen Youth Patrons, we helped to run the opening night the Connected Art Exhibition. The Connected Art Exhibition is run annually by All Saints’ College which gives the opportunity for students, parents, community members, and Nulsen Disability Residents to create artworks for the auction, where all donations go towards Nulsen Disability Services. Throughout the opening night, I handed out voting cards which provided people with the link to the online auction for all of the artworks, as well as a way for them to note down their favourites. Other jobs I had, involved placing rosettes next to the winning and highly recommended artworks, and guided others through the night. Many of us Patrons also created artworks for the exhibition.
Why I loved being a Nulsen Youth Patron
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a Nulsen Youth Patron because of the connections and invaluable experiences I have gained with others, and also the many new skills I have learnt and acquired. I have learnt so much about the services that Nulsen Disability Services provide, how to improve the lives of those with disabilities, and also how to interact with them in a way where they feel comfortable. I learnt these things through spending time with the Nulsen Disability Residents, and also working with the other Nulsen Youth Patrons at the college. We also had the chance to get to know the Youth Patrons at MLC and Hale School who were also involved in the same program. This provided an even larger community of students to bounce ideas off. My experience as a Nulsen Youth Patron is extremely valuable to me, and I would love to help and guide the future Nulsen Youth Patron’s so that they can enjoy and learn as much as I did.