THIS week is National Youth Week, the largest celebration of young people across Australia.
The week aims to encourage young
people to share ideas, have their voices heard, showcase their talents, celebrate their contribution to the community and have fun.
So it’s only fitting that this week Eaglehawk teenager Emma Lewis and her peers have invited the Bendigo community to be involved with their very special project.
The impressive group of young people have formed The Forgotten Ones, a team of compassionate teenagers who have
promised to clean up the Eaglehawk Cemetery.
Inspired by a visit to another regional Victorian cemetery, Emma returned to Eaglehawk to find a sorry, sad situation in her local graveyard.
While strolling through the cemetery she discovered “the forgotten” graves – those that had not been visited by family or friends for many years and others which had been vandalised.
Within weeks, Emma gained the support of 30 peers who will next week launch their project.
They will spend the coming months calling for support from local shopkeepers, holding sausage sizzles and staging uniform-free days at school to raise funds for their cause.
At the conclusion of the project, they hope to place an artificial flower on each of the “forgotten” graves.
But they also have another aim: to break down the stereotype that comes with being a young person living in Eaglehawk.
The group wants to prove to the wider population they have something to offer.
And what better way to do so?
Particularly when you read about the heartbreak experienced recently by youngsters Ruby and Caleb Ennor.
The last time the five and eight year olds saw their aunty was during a family day at the beach.
Two weeks later, she died suddenly.
The children returned to Aunty Kerrie’s beach to collect seashells, rocks and sand to create a memento for her grave.
But the memento has gone missing.
Perhaps when Emma and her team set to work, it might inspire others to think twice before considering their next attack on the cemetery.