By CASEY NEILL
KEYSBOROUGH students have played ping pong for 24 hours to raise more than $2000 for charity.
Lighthouse Christian Church was among 44 venues across Australia to host a Ping Pong-A-Thon event on 23 and 24 October.
Participants from Lighthouse Christian College committed to play table tennis for three hours of the 24-hour event and engage their family and friends to sponsor their efforts.
Money raised will support the work of eight organisations in South-East Asia to combat human trafficking and the exploitation of young people.
“I’ve done a bit of volunteer social work in South-East Asia and I’ve been to some of the non-government organisations this event is supporting,” organiser David Goode said.
“The work they do is quite phenomenal.
“Supporting them in this capacity was an easy thing to do.
“We ordered pizza at 11.30pm which arrived at midnight and that helped us on!”
Ping Pong-A-Thon founder Adrian Rowse saw first-hand the challenges many young people faced as a result of being born in an environment of extreme poverty.
“Many children in South-East Asia are sent by their families to the cities to fend for themselves or to find ‘work’ and send money back home to support the rest of their family,” he said.
“With limited education, no job skills and nowhere to live, most of these young people end up living on the streets and are drawn into the sex industry as a means of survival.”
Visit www.pingpongathon.com to sponsor the team.
