William and Daniel Clarke, the Terry Hills teenagers who are raising funds to buy and protect orang-utan habitat, spoke to the students at school this week. The children were utterly enthralled to meet the boys whom they had heard so much about over the past many months at school.
Daniel and William explained why the orang-utan are under such serious threat – mostly because of the demand for palm oil – and that there may be only ten years left in which to save them from going extinct.
But it wasn’t all serious, the children laughed hearing about how playful and mischievous young orang-utan are, and cheered when they heard how much the school had raised (more than $8000!) towards the boys’ fundraising goal.
As well as having a mufti day for the cause, each student spent many weeks creating an artwork, on canvas, of an orang-utan or other animal from the vulnerable rainforest habitat.
These paintings were exhibited at Art Focus Gallery in Brookvale and were available for sale.
It has been a very successful consciousness and fundraising project, and most importantly perhaps, has given the children a great example of young people stepping up to a challenge.
