As schools enter their final preparations for the 2017 RACV Energy Breakthrough, over 30 students from St. Therese’s Primary School in Bendigo have spent two days with some seasoned Catholic College Bendigo campaigners. With these older students keen to pass on their knowledge to the eager youngsters, RACV EB Pushcarts coordinator Bronte Harrop joined them to see them in action.
With three Human Powered Vehicle teams and a Pushcart team, the students and team manager Trent Mcinnes are certainly not short of work to do in the coming days. Their HPV teams have followed their naming tradition and are called ‘Eco Racers 1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’, whilst their Pushcart is called ‘St T Turbos’.
St Therese’s Primary School, which has been participating since 2002 however, were lucky enough to have a group of seasoned Energy Breakthrough riders and teachers help with their final preparations.
Five Year 12 students from Catholic College Bendigo (CCB) – Meg and Emily Patterson, Tia Webb, Mason Clarke and Kane Shelton – were all keen to pass on their knowledge to these eager youngsters.
Each of these students has six years of involvement and racing at the RACV Energy Breakthrough at CCB the guidance of Teachers Kylie Henriksen, Maree Pearce and Colin Hogan.
This is Trent McInnes first year running the program with St Therese’s, an experience he has described as:
‘enjoyable, especially working with such as large group of kids, all with different personalities … the group atmosphere and ability they’ve shown to work together has just made it a great experience’. ~ Trent McInnes, St Therese’s Team Manager
A focus on Display & Presentation and Design & Construction
With at least 50% of a team’s overall score coming from the Display & Presentation and Design & Construction elements of the event, the primary school students were keen to take as much information as they could from the CCB students. Meg, Emily, Tia, Mason and Kane are themselves preparing for their final year as participants at the RACV Energy Breakthrough. CCB’s three secondary HPV teams this year carry some quirky team names: ‘Pearcey’s Punks’, ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ and ‘Sneaky Mum’. (We’re sure there’s a back story there!)
‘It was really interesting to learn about other bits of the event that I didn’t really know about, like safety and the (Display &) Presentation.’~ St Therese’s HPV student Molly.
A little bit nervous, but very excited
All in all, the students said they were a little bit nervous, but are very excited to show off their new trike, pushcart and knowledge when they head over to Maryborough next Thursday.
Not long to go now and we hope that all teams are in the final stages of preparation. We can’t wait to see you all in Maryborough!
How has your school been preparing?
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