AFLW player Krstel Petrevski and Community Officer Hamish Brayshaw made the trip to the Pilbara last week to engage with children in the region during their school holidays.
The role model visits are one part of the relationship between the West Coast Eagles and BHP, and reflect the continuing work from Community and Game Development staff to increase youth leaders and build resilience in regional communities.
The week consisted of several events, including the Multi-Sports Community Carnival held at Kevin Scott Oval run by the Hedland Aboriginal Youth Sports Connect Initiative in collaboration with the West Coast Eagles, Town of Port Hedland and BHP.
There were 170 participants, with a game of colour tag starting it all off and bringing both kids and parents into fits of laughter before games of footy, cricket and basketball.
The role models further engaged with adolescents in their visit to the JD Hardie Youth and Community Hub playing a variety of games including basketball, air hockey, pool and Xbox, whilst Petrevski signed water bottles for the kids in attendance.
West Coast Eagles role models also attended the Youth Involvement Council Youth awards night, which acknowledges and celebrates nominees aged between five and 25 years old for some of their positive work within their community.
The West Coast Eagles’ newly appointed Port Hedland Youth Engagement Coordinator Claudia Bailey assisted throughout the events alongside Brayshaw and Petrevski.
Bailey says the initiatives of Youth Week were a major success for the local community.
"The town of Port Hedland collaborates with really passionate stakeholders to facilitate fun and engaging events during the school holidays, which is incredibly beneficial for youth in the region and keeps the whole community connected,” she said.
“There’s lots of different organisations in town that have the same goal. We all want positive outcomes for youth and want them to stay social and active in a positive way so providing those events where kids in town can see a lot of familiar faces and be in a positive environment is why we continue to do it.”
“It’s always nice for the kids to have the Eagles role models up here. They always get excited about seeing people in the blue and gold, so it was nice to have Hamish and Krstel up here and they had a ball with the kids.”
With a permanent full-time employee based in the Pilbara since 2021, the club will further build upon our continuous work with existing youth organisations and communities in the region through support, collaboration and delivery of after school hours activities.
The West Coast Eagles are proud of our continuing work with Youth Engagement Partner BHP and work with local communities across WA to bring role models from the club to Port Hedland, Newman, Kalgoorlie and Leinster throughout the year.
