George walks 240kms for isolated kids

George Rapley, a governess from Salt Lake Station, walked 240 kilometres into Bourke last week, raising $15,000 for the Bourke Walgett School of Distance Education.

George’s fund-raising trek also aimed to raise awareness about children who have no choice but to attend school via distance education, a cause she feels strongly about.

“All money raised will go back directly to the students,” George said.

The money will help parents with subsidising fees to have their children come together for school camps and just interact with the other students that they go to school with via distance learning on a day-to-day basis.”

George said she was born and bred in Tasmania then came out to Salt Lake, near Wanaaring 18 months ago, and started her journey with distance education, as a governess for a little fella named Billy.

“For my family and friends back home in Tassie to understand that we drive over 200 kilometres just to get to an IGA and not even a big town with a Woolworths was a massive thing for them.”

“It was hard for them to comprehend how far away everything is for us. It really got me thinking about what these kids and their parents go through on a day-to-day basis. It’s so different to anything else that I’ve experienced and worlds away from the education that I had as a child.”

George is inspired to give children studying through distance education a voice and created her trek ‘Making up the Distance,’ as a way to show how far some regional students have to travel to socialise and be a part of a ‘normal’ school environment.

“It’s been an absolutely incredible experience, but something I’m not going to do again in a hurry,” George said. […]

Read more local news in the printed edition of The Western Herald.

To subscribe call (02) 6872 2333 today and receive The Western Herald in your letterbox next week!