Monday, 18 June, 2018
Joey Watson is at Dubbo PCYC training in the club’s boxing gym as often as possible. It’s the comradery of being part of a team and meeting new friends that has him hooked on the sport, as much as the health benefits.
"We get to meet a lot of people and it’s a good sport for fitness and self-defence," Joey said. "It’s good at the PCYC, there are lots of kids there and everybody is nice, nobody is against each other.
"We travel to tournaments together in the bus as a team. We’ve been to Umina (on the Central Coast) and up to Queensland."
Joey, 12, who has been boxing for two years, has won a competition and does well in most he enters. He idolises Australian boxer Jeff Horn, who defeated Manny Pacquioa to claim the WBO Welterweight title in 2017.
"One of my goals is to be Australian champion," Joey said confidently.
Mark Nuttall, Dubbo PCYC Club Manager, said the club’s main goal was to empower young people like Joey to be good citizens rather than world champions. Those young club members had benefited greatly from the purchase of new van, Mr Nuttall said.
"The van has been a god-send for our boxing team, especially," Mr Nuttall said. "They’re going away, basically, every second weekend now.
"We also have high-level gymnasts as well who travel every month and our new eight-seater bus is just perfect for them. So the vehicle saves us money, time, and the fact that kids can travel together as a team means they can really bond."
The vehicle that’s used at Dubbo PCYC was donated by Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation. Over several years, the Foundation has donated vehicles for six PCYCs around region NSW: Dubbo, Bathurst, Mudgee, Orange, Armidale and Tamworth.
Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation Chair Phil Neat said he was delighted to see the vehicles had allowed clubs to help so many young people.
"Safe, reliable transport is key to improving access for marginalised young people throughout regional NSW to the potentially life-changing programs offered at PCYC," Mr Neat said.
"Prior to receiving our grant, the PCYC clubs were working with ageing vehicles and this was impacting on their ability to engage local young people in activities and programs. It’s a delight to see that the new vans have allowed club management and local police to deliver services and programs to even more young people."
The funding for these vans is just a small part of the Foundation’s bi-annual grants program that provides more than $1.5 million in funding each year to address social disadvantage in communities throughout regional NSW.
Life Education NSW, which operates Mobile Learning Centres that deliver health and wellbeing programs to primary and pre-schools, has been another beneficiary of the Foundation’s grants.
Life Education NSW CEO Kellie Sloane said the Foundation had supported various projects undertaken by the organisation over the past seven years.