Whilst most university students spend their holidays asleep, studying or partying, a group of dedicated young people are travelling from Sydney to Melbourne to volunteer their time, helping small communities along the way.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Two busloads of students from The Big Lift, a student-run volunteer organisation from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), are on a nine-day trip across regional Australia to help with projects in small towns.
One bus visited Woodstock and the other Wyangala on July 9 and 10.
Whilst in Woodstock, the group stayed at the Woodstock Memorial Hall and worked with the CWA to help paint their rooms, took down a fence, cleaned up at the Woodstock Showground and helped paint the outside of the Woodstock Bowling Club.
The Wyangala group assisted with renovating Wyangala Public School.
President of The Big Lift, Jen Ng, said the group gets in touch and researches the towns before visiting and offering to help locals in anyway they can.
“They all have so many stories to share, the townspeople are all so warm and giving,” she said.
“It’s the little things that mach each visit to a town unique.”
Jen said it is all about community engagement and that every town has surprised the students with their welcoming nature.
“It was great to see,” she said on the trip to Woodstock.
“It was lovely to hear the townspeople had a bit of fun.”
Now in it’s 7th year of running, for the first time the group is travelling south through regional NSW and VIC.
In previous years, the group has headed north to Queensland to areas like Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Jen says the team gets overwhelmed by the generosity of the communities they visit.
“They are happy to have us over,” she said.
“We visit not knowing what to expect, they give us morning tea and coffee.”
The group was founded by two UTS students nearly a decade ago after being inspired by the work done by student groups in the United States.
Since then, another Big Lift group has been founded at the University of Technology Queensland.
To date, The Big Lift UTS is the only NSW-based group, however there are plans in the future to expand to other universities.
The Big Lift is sponsored by the University of Technology Sydney (Student Services, Faculty of Health, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), UTS International (BUiLD and Community Connections), Activate UTS, Pegasus Coaches, ResMed, and ING Direct.
