PHOTO: CAHS Executive Director, Beau Ewers (centre) with NRLW players Quincy Dodd (Sharks), Olivia Kernick (Roosters) and NRL players Connor Watson and Mark Nawaqanitawase at the local community day on Wednesday 1 April.
The Coonamble Sportsground was the hotspot for all footy fans on Wednesday 1 April where locals could meet and greet celebrities advocating mental health awareness.
National Rugby League Women (NRLW) Cronulla Sharks hooker Quincy Dodd and Roosters second rower Olivia Kernick joined National Rugby League (NRL) the Roosters hooker Connor Watson and winger Mark Nawaqanitawase for the local community day.
The footy stars, Coonamble Aboriginal Health Service (CAHS) Health Promotions, Fair Dinkum Choices and other service workers guided the St Brigids, Coonamble Primary and Coonamble High School kids through activities to encourage mental health awareness.
The kids were taken through breathing exercises, cultural activities, painting, wellbeing sessions and skills and drills with NRLW and NRL players.
School students and best friends Aria and Mataya said their favourite activity was the cultural painting.
“We did the same painting,” Aria said.
On top of an exciting meet and greet with famous footy stars, all the school kids went home with a free fresh pair of shoes, a jersey or a new tee-shirt from JD Sports.
“It’s been absolutely awesome to see all the smiles on the kids faces when they got a pair of shoes,” a volunteer said.
CAHS Regional health promotional manager Pam Renata said the stations were “really successful.”
“We can always count on Coonamble coming together for a great community day,” she said.
“We have a strong engagement with the local schools, the Aboriginal Community and this is fantastic.”
This is Fair Dinkum Choices’s first community day at Coonamble and CAHS Executive Director Beau Ewers said he is hopeful this partnership can continue.
“I’m really passionate about this type of stuff and I’m really proud of these opportunities for the community,” Mr Ewers said.
“I hope we can keep doing things like this to raise awareness about health and wellbeing and building Aboriginal Community Resilience.”
The school kids ran through the events before the rest of the community came through the oval gates at 12pm.
The footy players were popular with locals, and could never stray too far from a sharpie.
Attendees lined up with footballs, jerseys and even shoes for the players to sign.
A free barbeque lunch was on offer, run by Adam Cohen and the Clontarf boys.
The Fair Dinkum Choices event brought together local services to promote culture, wellbeing and sport in Coonamble.