Little Lifts
Little Lifts are our weekend volunteering trips to regional towns in NSW. They have the same foundational focus as our flagship trip in July, however students stay in one town for two nights, volunteering with the community and completing 12 hours of service projects. A two-night stay has the valuable benefit of allowing closer engagement with communities and more time to work on service projects.
We introduced Little Lifts in 2017, running one per semester. In 2019, we increased this to three over course of the year. In 2022, we ran a record four little lifts.
On this page you can find summaries on the following Little Lifts:
as well as our Image Gallery!
Wyangala, 2022
On the 11th of February, a new set of Lifters set off on our third visit to the town of Wyangala (we have previously visited in 2018 and 2019). At Wyangala Dam Public School, participants completed a variety of service projects including weeding (pictured), creating an irrigation system for the garden they built, cleaning and painting two large school signs (also pictured) and other similar tasks.
Unlike our last visit, when Wyangala Dam’s water level had dropped from 88% to 15.9% within a year, during this visit it stood at an astounding 98.2%.
Lifters received the opportunity to engage with the local community, working on the above service projects with townspeople and the students of the school (during their holidays). As many had not visited regional Australia in the past, this was a valuable opportunity to open their minds and experience an entirely different way of life than the one they were used to.
Reflecting on this, one Lifter has said:
I enjoyed everything but I think the afternoon at the RFS fire station and the sense of community I experienced was awesome! I really enjoyed travelling and seeing a different side to life than what is typical in the city.
See below for a little memento Lifters left for the school.
A huge thank you to Lea Smith and Wyangala for allowing us the opportunity to visit their incredible town.
Canowindra, 2021
On the 9th of April 2021, 20 brand new Lifters headed west towards the gorgeous town of Canowindra (pronounced Ca-noun-dra). We had previously visited Canowindra on one of our Winter Trips.
Sudents volunteered in and around Canowindra Public School on Saturday, completing activities ranging from painting to mulching, and ultimately replanting most of the school’s garden!
As this took most of the day, we took the Lifters to a lookout to enjoy sunset (pictured below). After having dinner at the local pub, we returned to this spot a few hours later to do some stargazing. The stars are dazzling several hundred kilometres west of Sydney’s light-polluted skies.
Lifters throwing up their fists, doing TBL’s signature ‘Yeah Buddy!’
Lifters greatly enjoyed the opportunity to refurbish Canowindra Public School’s facilities during the school holidays. They cherished the knowledge that upon the students’ return, they would find that they had shiny new equipment to play with, as well as a newly replanted garden.
On Sunday, Lifters continued to volunteer and were treated to a talk about the history of Canowindra by the school’s principal, Sharon Hawker. As they eagerly asked questions to learn more about the town’s rich history, we could tell that they very much enjoyed this talk.
We would like to thank Sharon and the remainder of the welcoming community for allowing us to visit and volunteer at Canowindra Public School.
Wyangala, 2022
On the 22nd of November, 20 Lifters set out to the town of Wyangala on our third Little Lift of the year. At Wyangala Dam Public School, participants worked hard to complete service projects such as mulching, creating a garden bed, raking and shovelling gravel.
Wyangala was one of the towns previously visited on the 2018 Winter Trip. Across the 3 days, participants were able to connect with the townspeople and learn about the rich history of Wyangala, as well as the notable issue of the ongoing drought. We learned in recent months the water levels from the Wyangala Dam dropped from 88% to 15.9% within a year. Participants were able to see the effects of the drought on the town itself, hearing firsthand from the locals how this has impacted their community. Witnessing this allowed Lifters to gain a richer understanding of how climate change affects regional areas.
The Big Lift believes our message of #payitforward also means spreading awareness about life in regional towns. Thank you Wyangala and Sue Clark for the opportunity to visit your beautiful town.
Berry, 2022
On the 13th of September 2019, 20 UTS students participated in our Little Lift to the beautiful town of Berry for the third time running. On the first day, students worked together with Berry Landcare to plant over 500 native Australian trees for the Wildlife Corridor. We saw the trees that had sprouted from the year before which was very exciting, and we also learnt the importance of creating the corridor to ensure that wildlife habitats could flourish.
All the townspeople welcomed us warmly and many of the students had the opportunity to interact with the local townspeople. Lifters were made to feel a part of the community even if the trip was only short. After a long day of planting trees, another townsperson Bill Pigott invited the students over to his home for some Nepalese food. Many of the participants treasured these interactions with the townspeople as it allowed them to build bridges and foster understanding between city and regional people through a simple shared act of generosity.
The second day involved the students cutting down trees and weeds that had grown at a rapid rate. This was hard work, but all the volunteers were enthusiastic and eager to get their hands dirty to cut down as much as possible. The trip definitely allowed us to connect with our philosophy of “paying it forward” with new-formed friendships over this weekend.
Image Gallery
