By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A PRIMARY school has cast its fund-raising net afar to build a boldly-named ‘community castle’ on its school grounds.
Dandenong West Primary School needs $7500 to bring the project to fruition, which is to transform an old shelter shed into a burgeoning workshop for school dads and other men to ply their trade.
In their current, humble setting without power or plumbing, a professional tradesman is teaching handy-skills to up to 10 men.
The school hopes that soon the fully-kitted workshop will attract more of its students’ fathers into the school.
It would be powered, have plumbing and be stocked with tools for the men to tinker, learn skills, interact with and teach students.
There are plans for the men to install a pre-loved cubby house and build a pizza oven for the school.
The tools will also be available to be taken out to repair jobs at their homes and in the wider community.
Principal Bev Hansen says many in the school community don’t have the disposable income to fund the project, so the website was a way of reaching a “broader audience”.
By Thursday last week, the school had raised close to $6000, pledged by 97 supporters on the website pozible.com. The pledging period expires this Friday.
Ms Hansen says the castle is part of creating a community hub at the school – one that will draw in more parents and the wider pool of residents.
The school also runs a cooking class for mums, adult English-language classes, a women-in-leadership program and driving lessons for parents.
Ms Hansen is one of the forerunners of the It’s Just A Postcode program, which aims to defy a stigma held by outsiders to Dandenong West.
The program’s founders want to reverse the notion that a postcode is “the most powerful determinant” of student success.
Ms Hansen told the Journal last year: “Where you live doesn’t determine what your destiny is going to be.”
To pledge, go to pozible.com/project/178945
