Vaughn Arambatzis is being praised by the local St George and Sutherland Shire community for his strong initiative to take local action, raising funds for the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home.
Originally published by The Leader, Vaughn, a year 6 student, took part in a ‘Give Back’ project run by his school, St Patrick’s College, Strathfield.
Vaughn had adopted a dog from Sydney Dogs and Cats Home at Carlton two years before, which sadly had to be handed back after it kept escaping from their yard. As the family are keen recyclers, he decided to collect cans and bottles to recycle through the NSW government’s Return and Earn scheme.
Taking advice from his mother, Mrs Arambatzis, Vaughn reached out to the community for support. They enlisted a friend with a ute, Peter Panopoulos from Advanced Building and Maintenance, to drive them to the Return and Earn facility at Rockdale.
“We would wait until we had a ute-load then we would drive them there. It would usually take about an hour each time to put them through the machine,” Mrs Arambatzis said.
Vaughn also gained the attention of State MP for Oatley Mark Coure, who gave a cash donation and promoted his efforts on his social media accounts.
In total, Vaughn raised a total of $300 from the donated containers and $200 in cash donations.
“It really went gangbusters,” Mrs Arambatzis said.
“He ended up collecting just over 3000 cans and bottles.”
“It was really lovely and made Vaughn feel very special,” she added.
