Off to a flying start

Radford College Year 6 student, Lucinda Harrison, has collected an incredible 10,000 bottles and cans to raise funds via the ACT Container Deposit Scheme for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

Lucinda thought of the idea in February 2021 and collected the bottles and cans between March 2021 and September 2022.

Most of the bottles and cans were collected at the Radford P&F movie night in February, as well as by Lucinda handing collection bins out around her suburb and with the assistance of some wonderful friends.

With the help of her mother and Radford College Student Support Assistant, Katherine Fleming, Lucinda processed the bottles and cans at her local container deposit in batches of 300-500. This was the only way Lucinda could prevent their garage from overflowing!

Lucinda is passionate about supporting the Royal Flying Doctor Service because she believes people living in regional and rural Australia should have access to the same level of health services as people living in metropolitan areas.

“When I broke my arm, I was able to go to hospital and have a cast put on within a few hours,” said Lucinda. “But my friend who lives in a rural area had to wait five hours for the RFDS to arrive and almost a day to get a cast on his broken arm.”

Ms Fleming also grew up on a rural property, inspiring Lucinda’s knowledge of the RFDS.

“I think if you can help people, you should,” said Lucinda.

Lucinda and Ms Fleming visited the RFDS headquarters to hand over the cheque for $1000 last week.

The daughter and mother are already thinking of their next cause, with Lucinda talking about raising money to buy Buffalo Bikes for World Bicycle Relief. Buffalo Bikes helps children get to school, healthcare workers access patients, and farmers get their produce to market in developing areas of the world.

“My family has a lot of bikes we don’t use. We could sell those and donate the profits,” said Lucinda.

Lucinda also plans to continue to support the RFDS.