General News
21 June, 2024
Fruitful future
KINGS College student Alena Topraz is a small child with a huge heart.
Free spirited and full of energy and hope for the future, this gentle-natured, thoughtful youngster spends her time thinking of others – and of how she can help make their lives that little bit happier.
In 2022, as a prep, she chose to cut her hair short and donate her locks to ‘Wigs 4 Kids’, a project of the Kids with Cancer Foundation.
With donations from family and friends, the event also raised about $4,000.
The following year, in year one, Alena donated the contents of her money box to underprivileged school children in Uganda.
“I had been saving up my coins for a family trip overseas but after I heard some of our students talk about their trip to Uganda and how the school kids over there didn’t have a lot of food, water or pencils I wanted to give them my money,” Alena said.
“We’ve got food and water and everything we need so we’re very lucky. I think I donated about $180 which made me happy.”
This year, Alena’s thoughts turned to providing fruit trees for the students of Kings College, prompted by a conversation she had with a classmate.
“One day one of my friends forgot to bring her lunch and didn’t have any fruit so I asked mum if I could plant the seeds from my apple to grow a tree,” she said.
“But she said that wouldn’t really work, how about we donate some trees to plant at school that way all the kids can have fruit all the time.”
The grounds of Kings College now have a range of bare-rooted fruit trees, which will provide students with apples, oranges, plums, nectarines, peaches, pears, mandarins and apricots.
“It will be fun to watch the trees grow and to see the fruit come out,” Alena said.
“I’m not really sure what I’ll do next year yet; maybe when my hair grows long enough I’ll give it to Wigs 4 Kids again.”
Whatever project Alena decides to take on for 2025, one thing is certain – this youngster will again be thinking of others and how to make the world a better, brighter place.
