Teens give up holidays to help children

Two Kwinana teenagers gave up sleep-ins, days at the beach and paid work to volunteer during their summer holidays.

Kwinana Youth Advisory Council member Ebony Pavlov and hockey player Cooper Tilbury spent five days volunteering as leaders at Camp Kulin.

Established in 2013 and located in the Wheatbelt, Camp Kulin has quickly gained national and international recognition for its innovative programs.

The Camp Kulin program list includes activities for children living in the Wheatbelt, general camps open to any child in WA, scholarship camps for children affected by trauma, corporate programming, school excursions and school camps.

Ebony has volunteered for several camps after attending Kulin when she was younger.

The 16-year-old has completed a Certificate II in Community Services and is about to start a Certificate III in Education Support.

“After having great experiences as a camper, I wanted to give something back to future kids,” she said.

“We volunteer because we want to do it. I enjoy Camp Kulin so much and I’m passionate about helping others. I would like to work with disabled people and people who need help more than me.”

Cooper discovered Camp Kulin through a work colleague and after volunteering at his first camp, he has already caught the bug for it, with plans to do it again.

“I have a big family and lots of young cousins so working with children wasn’t something that I wasn’t familiar with,” he said.

“My favourite part was getting to know all of the kids — it made me a better person and helped me to find myself.”