Eltham Term Week 5 2020

It's the final week of Newstart and none of us can believe how fast it has gone!

We started the week on a Tuesday to get one last gym session in and to do our speech writing preparation for the graduation tomorrow. We picked everyone up as normal, met with Brad and then got stuck into our programs. It was great to see how everyone has advanced over these short 4 weeks. Everyones form, strength and flexibility has all improved and that is all due to their hard work and commitment to showing up each week. After this we had some lunch and wrote down our speeches for tomorrow. To end the day we went to ten pin bowling and had a game amongst each other. Although most of us hadn't played before, we all had fun and then called it a day.

Wednesday was the last day on the program and the most exciting day as it was our graduation day! We met everyone at Eltham Leisure centre dressed to the nine and ready to celebrate the term. Although the young people were nervous to say their speeches, they all stood up and did a great job to address the room. Hearing comments on how far they have come, what they have learned and who they are thankful for was touching. With massive thanks to all the parents, service providers, council members, schools and loved ones the room was filled with love and I think everyone could settle and enjoy the positive energy that has been lacking from 2020. After watching the end of term movie and sharing in some food and chatter we said goodbye to the group and wished them a great chissy and New years.

To each young person who graduated today or participated in the program - you should be extremely proud of what you were able to achieve over the short 4 weeks of the program. Every one of you has overcome some type of physical or mental hurdle to give every activity a go. What you achieved on this program cannot be taken away from you and cannot be credited to anyone but yourself. Well done for taking a chance and stepping out of your comfort zone.