21 Oct 2024
Last term we had 14 students raise over $2000 to fight children’s cancer for the the Kids Cancer Project Write a Book in a Day Challenge.
As the competition title suggests, the three teams had to write a book over the course of a day. The stories had to be illustrated, have an Australian setting or Australian themes and be between 3000 and 5000 words. There were also some randomly generated words and parameters allocated to each team, which they had to weave into their work to ensure the book was indeed completed in a day.
The students worked between 8am and 8pm to get their books finished. They started their day brainstorming and then worked through the process of drafting, editing, refining and extending their stories. Coordinator Libby Ridgway helped to keep the teams on target with fruit, delicious, home-made biscuits and brownies and regular exercise breaks.
The finished books (which can be viewed below, are in the process of being judged. After the panel have determined the winners of the competition, all the stories will be published and distributed to children’s cancer wards around the country.
The students generated funds for the project with the help of generous family and friends. They also ran a special fundraiser selling spiders to hot and thirsty students for Fizzy Friday.
The money raised will go towards preventing childhood cancer and improving treatments to ensure they are less invasive for young patients. The Kids Cancer Project has already managed to raise $70 million for over 387 such Australian research projects.
“English is usually done individually,” explains English teacher Libby Ridgway, “So it’s great to see our students work together as a team to put together something meaningful. Teamwork is a life skill and it will helps our students become better citizens.”
Well done to all of our competitors. Student Alicia Newman deserves a special mention for raising almost $1000 by herself. Make sure you check out the finished books below!
