Community
Albies is an important component of the UNE and wider
Armidale community.
We're always willing to lend a hand to raise money for charities or help out with local community events.
The Junior Common Room of St Albert's College has done a tremendous job raising funds throughout the year with over $10,000 donated to a number of cancer related charities.
Well done to our JCR President and his Committee and all those who participated.
Here are just some of the things they were involved in:
PARENTS WEEKEND
We celebrate Parent’s Weekend in mid May with almost 300 parents travelling from as far a field as Northern Queensland and Tasmania. The parents are able to catch up with their sons and daughters and experience College life.
A black tie charity ball is held on the Saturday night with parents and students dancing well into the evening. This year at the Ball a number of students led by Jess Mullane, volunteered to lose their hair in the name of charity. Great generosity was shown with almost $6,000 raised for the Leukaemia Foundation and the NSW Cancer Council.
TERM 3 ACTIVITIES
During the semester a large number of our students are involved in a variety of community service activities. In 2008 out students assisted at St Mary’s Primary School, O’Connor Catholic College, door knocking for the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal and at Wool Expo assisted with setting up and running the gate for the three days.
ARMIDALE ONCOLOGY & CANCER SUPPORT UNIT
The students at St Albert’s College braved Armidale’s cold conditions for a week of festivities and fundraising with over $1,600 raised for the Armidale Community Oncology and Cancer Support Unit during Albies Week. Charity events included a golf day, car wash and College Ball.
Donations went towards the purchasing of specialist equipment for the Oncology Unit and for providing comfort and symptom control care for cancer patients in their home.
ALUMNI IN ON THE ACT IN 2008
The contribution our students make to their local community doesn't stop when they leave Albies. Many of our alumni members play a significant role in their new communities as reflected in Matt & Nat's mammoth effort of cycling across Australia.
On February 27, two past residents of St Albert’s College, Nathaniel Groves and Matthew Sheppard, set out on the ride of their life – cycling across Australia, raising donations for ParaQuad NSW.
Nat and Matt are rode from coast to coast – Fremantle, WA to Bondi Beach, Sydney – and gave themselves 22 days to complete the ride. They rode approximately 200km a day and arrived in Sydney on 20th March 2008. The ride also included a third cyclist, Murray Campbell (an Englishman), as well as a support vehicle and driver, also an Englishman.
Nat and Matt stated that they “understood from the word go how difficult the cycle would be, although we wanted to put ourselves out of our comfort zone and do it for something that we are very passionate about. This is when we chose to do it for ParaQuad NSW. We were motivated by the way in which two of our mates are now facing life-challenging hurdles in their everyday life after sustaining spinal cord injuries in accidents and unfortunately are now quadraplegics”.
On their return to Sydney, they organised a separate fundraiser night for their two mates, with monies raised going towards accommodating their disabilities and providing rehabilitation to enable greater independence. To date they have raised over $30,000.
Both Nat and Matt were residents of St Albert’s College between 2003 and 2006. They played an active part in college life and in the Armidale Community. Both were Residential Advisors in their final year at Albies. They completed their studies at the end of 2006 – Matt graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics and Nat a Bachelor of Rural Science.