Canberra’s school, government and corporate communities banded together to demonstrate their support for the Boundless Canberra project.
The Minister for Disability, Children and Young People, Joy Burch, today launched a competition called Boundless Enthusiasm, which asks school students to make a short video on why the Boundless Canberra inclusive playground is so important.
Boundless Canberra is a project aiming to create the first space in the ACT where children with disabilities can safely play with their friends and family. Playing is important for all children, not only so they can have fun, but also to aid learning and development. Boundless will help children improve their coordination, muscle strength, language, cognitive thinking and reasoning abilities.
The playground will be a gift from the people of Canberra to the national capital for its Centenary. Boundless Canberra is proudly supported by the ACT Government’s Community Centenary Initiatives Fund.
Over 100 ACT school students and teachers attended the launch of Boundless Enthusiasm. A number of students and families shared their own experiences and views on why Canberra urgently needs an all abilities playground.
Students from high school and primary school can enter Boundless Enthusiasm as either individuals or as a school class.
Prizes for the school class winners have been kindly supplied by the Canberra Raiders who will be providing the winning classes with a football clinic.
During the event, Boundless Canberra also announced a new partnership with leading credit union Community CPS Australia. Community CPS is not only generously supporting the Boundless project in a number of ways, but has donated two $500 Community Reward savings accounts as prizes for the individual winners of Boundless Enthusiasm.
“Community CPS has been very passionate about Boundless Canberra ever since we approached them,” Boundless Canberra Board Member, Natalie Howson said.
“We felt Community CPS would be a perfect fit for Boundless because of its commitment to the Canberra community and its strong association with the public service.”
Community CPS Australia chief executive officer Robert Keogh said the credit union believed the project would play a significant role in uniting children and families from all backgrounds.
“Boundless Canberra is a major inclusion initiative that is set to become a destination for residents and visitors alike, a place where children of all abilities can play together and have fun,” Mr Keogh said.
“Supporting such community initiatives runs to the core of our credit union, so we are very pleased to assist the Boundless Enthusiasm competition and Boundless Canberra,” Mr Keogh said. “We are kicking off the fundraising with a $20,000 donation from our charitable foundation and our eight branches in the ACT can now accept tax-deductible donations from the public.”
Community CPS general manager operations Ross Norgate, who attended today’s launch, said ACT residents could also show their support by opening a Community Reward Account and nominating Boundless Canberra as the recipient. The ‘at call’ savings account has no monthly fees, and each year Community CPS will calculate the average annual balance in every account linked to Boundless and donate up to 1.5 per cent of that balance to the organisation.
“If we combine our efforts, we can all help deliver this project and see the wonder and joy of children enjoying the maze, sensory garden, climbing wall, cubby house and play sculpture that will form a part of this playground,” Mr Norgate said.
“Today’s launch was a lot of fun and a perfect demonstration of the type of broad support Boundless Canberra has been so fortunate to secure,” Ms Howson said. “We had representatives from our many business patrons, schools, and the government. Thanks to each of these groups Boundless Canberra is getting closer to its funding goal every day.
“We are all looking forward to seeing the videos produced by Canberra’s school students,” Ms Howson said. “Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page as we will be sharing the presentations as we receive them. Your child or their school could soon be starring at www.boundlesscanberra.org.au.”
The launch of Boundless Enthusiasm took place at Cranleigh School. Cranleigh provides educational programs for children with developmental delays, autism, moderate to severe intellectual or multiple disabilities in the age range 3-12 years.
For all media enquiries please contact Natalie Howson on 0408 291 084 or Silvia Knoppien at communikate et al on 0457 108 878
About THE COMMUNITY CPS AUSTRALIA GROUP
Two-time winner of Money magazine’s Credit Union of the Year award (2012, 2008) and winner of the Mozo People’s Choice Award for Best Credit Union (2012) the Community CPS Australia Group is one of the largest customer owned financial institutions in Australia, with assets under management approaching $4 billion. The credit union employs 598 staff across 46 branches, servicing more than 184,000 members in South Australia,the ACT, Wagga Wagga, the Hunter Valley and Western Australia.
The Group comprises activities in banking, the community (through the Community CPS Foundation) and professional services (wealth management, tax and accounting services via Eastwoods). For more information visitwww.communitycps.com.au
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