Bringing back halftime oranges is a success
Sue Emeny
The success of an initiative to supply oranges to school teams playing Saturday sports has been down to hard work and community support.
The hard work has been put in by initiator of the project Oranges for Dannevirke, Anna Clark, and the community support has come from the many businesses who have contributed to the project.
Clark, a Dannevirke local, is the mother of two sports-playing children who came up with the idea of supplying teams with oranges at half-time while she was buying oranges at Shires Fruit and Vege Market.
“I saw that I wasn’t the only parent in the shop for that reason so Oranges for Dannevirke was born.”
Clark established a Facebook page, Oranges for Dannevirke, to spread the word and keep people up to date on how the project is going.
“The project is providing Saturday sports playing teams in all codes, from primary to secondary school, with half time oranges, provided by sponsorship from generous local businesses and at a great rate from Shires,” says Clark.
In the last week of the school term Clark delivered her 2000th orange, having averaged around 300 a week.
“To begin with I contacted local schools and sports clubs, encouraging them to register their teams, and at this point we have well over 300 kids receiving oranges, that is about 36 teams.”
The oranges cost around $200 a week, although the cost does fluctuate.
Once Clark had the numbers she then contacted local businesses seeking contributions.
“We now have 26 businesses as sponsors. Last week Dannevirke Carriers jumped on board and we even have a family sponsoring us.”
Clark says the majority of local business owners have children who play Saturday morning sport so they are happy to make a donation.
Some sponsors give a lump sum while others pay a certain amount each week.
Not all donations have been monetary. Bec Adie from Property Brokers had labels made with the various team names on them. These are attached to the bags the oranges are delivered in.
Each week on the Facebook page Clark lists the sponsors and posts photographs of the sports teams on the receiving end of the sponsors’ generosity.
For Clark the business of collecting, sorting and delivering the oranges is a big task.
On a Thursday Clark messages the contacts who have registered teams to check on numbers.
”I check to see if they have a bye that week and if the numbers are sufficient.”
She phones the order through to Shires who have them boxed up and ready for her to collect on a Friday morning. Clark then takes the oranges home and bags them up and labels them.
“On Friday afternoon I head back into town and deliver to schools, businesses, and for out of town parents I drop theirs at Farmlands.”
Clark says the project is going extremely well, but she is still looking for supporters each week, to ensure there are oranges for all teams for the entire season.
As to the children, Clark says there is no doubt they enjoy the oranges.
“The boys tend to demolish them, and I’ve had parents say to me that their children don’t usually eat fruit at home.”
Not content to just supply oranges, Clark is hoping to supply the children who are registered with sports bags with the sponsors’ names printed on them at the end of the season to say thanks, so she will need to keep receiving contributions.
In a bid to go national with the project Clark has emailed Seven Sharp and scheduled an email to hit Breakfast for its Today’s the Day segment, but she hasn’t as yet heard back.
“I have been able to get this initiative going because I have the time as I’m not working at the moment. What I’m gaining from this is the feel-good factor.”
■ To ssupport the project email orangesfordvk@gmail.com.