We woke at sunrise and made an early start for a big day visiting 3 remote schools as we started past Kings Canyon & drove along the dirt road of the Mereenie loop heading towards Alice Springs. The landscape was amazing as we passed herds of wild horses and camels in the dry, deserted and picturesque country. We first visited Jonathon & the kids at the beautiful community of Utju Areyonga where they were so welcoming and friendly. We got the opportunity to spend some quality time with them play basketball during their recess time. As the temperature hit the high thirties we pushed onto Hermannsburg where we dropped another bag of balls off to the kids who only had a couple of balls at the school. We had a quick game of soccer with the kids then ventured onto our last school in the pretty little community of Wallace Rockhole. We were extremely touched when the teacher Maryse was so thankful for the balls donated as she explained the kids do not receive any presents for Christmas so she was going to keep them in her office hidden away so the kids could receive a ball each on Christmas day.
We had visited these schools when the foundation first started around 7 years ago so it was great to visit again and reinforced how such a small token of a ball donation by generous people from Melbourne sports clubs and schools is so greatly appreciated in these outback schools. Happy 50th birthday Jay!