Top and bottom: ADF personnel get in amongst the fun at the Pirlingimbi Community in the Tiwi Islands during a September school holiday visit.

A group of ADF volunteers have returned from a successful school holiday program in the Pirlingimbi community of the Tiwi Islands.

The volunteers came from units in Darwin’s Larrakeyah Barracks and the final team consisted of LS Rick Garner, AB Guy Britcher and AB Nikki Bebonis from HMAS Coonawarra, CAPT Emma Maiden, FLTLT Lorraine Every and WO2 Peter Turner from HQNORCOM, and SGT Katrina Windebank from NORFORCE.

The aim of the school holiday program was to provide sport, arts and craft activities for Tiwi Island youth aged between 5 and 15 years during the September school holidays.

When the team first arrived, they conducted icebreaking activities that included face painting, bead making, basketball and bubbles – lots of bubbles.

A couple of the girls so enjoyed the face painting that they were seen getting their faces painted and showing their friends before washing and lining up for another colourful face.

The highlight of the trip was swimming at a local water hole on day two.

This provided the volunteers with some respite from the heat and enabled the kids to get to know them better.

The water hole was an idyllic spot with crystal clear water and lovely a sandy bottom where the kids painted themselves with clay, swam, dived and generally climbed all over the team.

The time in Pirlingimbi passed very quickly and during the five days in the community the team played more Auskick than previously thought possible (the kids were incredibly fit and absolutely loved their Aussie Rules).

The kids participated in additional activities such as the earth ball, skipping and a mini olympics.

The arts and craft activities proved highly popular with many making bead necklaces and friendship bands as well as painting posters for their favourite football team the Imalu Tigers.

Much of the success of the activities can be attributed to the support and assistance received from the sport and rec officer, Gideon Pangiraminni and his assistant Danielle Dunn.

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