Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to welcome to the House today Rebecca, who is volunteering in my office and has helped me with this speech. Rebecca has been involved in the Elephant Youth Day, a day held at Wodonga's La Trobe University on 15 October, organised by the Wodonga Youth Leadership Program, a team of four leaders who work closely with five Wodonga high school students who are in year 11. They formed a subcommittee to create an event for students in Wodonga schools in years 9 to 11.

The day consisted of four guest speakers talking about their personal life experiences to inspire the students to live with a happier, healthier mind. They equipped the attendees with the skills to cope with their up-and-coming VCE pressure or other pressure in general with being an adolescent. These young people will create a domino effect on the people who they influence, which, I believe, is the beginning of creating a great generation of leaders in Indi.

I would like to congratulate the committee team—Rebecca, Quin, Brody, Ariel, Hannah, Jacqui, Lendel, Lindsey and Caitlyn—for their dedication in creating and planning the event for two months, with a total attendance of over 60 students from Wodonga Senior Secondary College, Victory Lutheran College, Catholic College Wodonga and Wodonga Middle Years College. I would really like to congratulate the committee on strengthening and uniting the Indi community of Wodonga. It is young people like these who will be our future leaders and they will place the breadcrumb trail to make finding the way a little bit clearer. In Indi, events such as this one make a huge— (Time expired)

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