One dollar is all it takes for bike wheels to turn
For the past three months, year four students at a Lower Hutt school have been frantically fundraising to buy bikes – but not for themselves.
Two classes at Wellesley College have banded together to help out a nearby school, Randwick College, and are asking people to donate just $1.
It all started with learning about mindfulness and the vagus nerve. ‘‘It’s a nerve that connects your heart and your brain, and it sends waves between them. When you do kind things, it strengthens it,’’ 8-year-old Declan O’Connell said.
To ‘‘strengthen’’ that nerve, the Wellesley students decided to do something kind for someone else.
‘‘We came up with the idea – why don’t we think of a project this year to help someone?’’ teacher Gavin Hughes explained.
Their idea was simple – another Lower Hutt school, Randwick School, was in need of bikes for its students and Wellesley College would help fundraise for them.
The school opened three new bike tracks earlier this year, but only around 20 per cent of its 150 students had bikes to use at the new facility. More than 100 pupils would be missing out.
The Wellesley College students settled on Donate A Dollar Day. On or before September 26, people can donate $1 to the fundraiser. The dollar part was important – as Hughes said, it meant a 5-year-old’s dollar donation would be just as important as the prime minister’s dollar.
At the end of the fundraising campaign, the money would go towards buying bikes and helmets for Randwick School students.
The class consensus was that riding bikes could help with mental health, physical health and – perhaps more importantly – it was fun.
The boys from Wellesley College recently visited Randwick School to meet the students and try the track for themselves, which spurred on their altruistic goals.
Randwick students had been dropping flyers and putting up posters about Donate A Dollar Day, while the Wellesley students had started approaching famous sportspeople, family and friends to get people involved. They also set up a Facebook page and Instagram account.
The year 4 students started taking photos of people holding a dollar over their vagus nerve and, so far, had pulled in people such as All Black Ardie Savea and National Party leader Simon Bridges.
Donations can be made directly to bank account 06-0501-0826230-10 or people can take up a cash collection at an office, class or home and pass it on.