Businesses give kids a leg up

Karratha businesses have chipped in to support Roebourne youth by providing access to sporting opportunities and hot meals.

Each week, Fortesque Bus Services operations manager Tony Simpson ensures Roebourne PCYC children have transport available to take them to the Karratha Leisureplex for basketball and other events, while McDonald’s Karratha owner Clayton McIntosh provides bacon and egg rolls to fuel their activities and has donated funds to assist with the programming.

Mr Simpson said it was important to provide youth with transport to activities to ensure they were kept off the street.

“Idle hands do cause mischief, but if you can keep them busy, that certainly goes a long way to help,” he said. “It’s the underlying issue that everyone knows in the wider community but we’ve got to do something about it.

“It’s important for us to give back. It goes a long way to help out.

“All those small things you can do certainly does help a lot with the wider community.

“It feels good.

“You get to know quite a few of the kids in the program and you get to see their faces light up.

“We absolutely look forward to keep working with them.” Roebourne PCYC manager Vish Sharma thanked the businesses for their support and said their social responsibility was overwhelming.

“We want to acknowledge the fact that these businesses go out of their way to help us out,” he said.

“It’s a great initiative.

“It allows the kids to interact with other kids in Karratha, participate in a team environment and also look out for each other.

“These are people with dignity and pride.

“For a lot of these kids, basketball is the one thing they relate to in terms of community participation, and also making sure they have that interaction outside of Roebourne.”