New calendar Bang on target

By Melissa Donchi
MONTHS of hard work has paid off for Healesville High School’s Bang Production Team as they launched their fifth anniversary community calendar last week.
The 2008 Healesville Community Calendar is their most successful yet, being stocked by everyone from the Healesville Sanctuary Giftshop to overseas in Nepal and Costa Rica.
It may have taken some extra weekends and even some school holidays to get it finished but the effort, they say, has been worth it.
Teaching staff on the Bang Production Team describe the calendar as a full-time job and the students that work on it as small business operators.
Business manager Sally Browne said the students managed all aspects of the project.
“The students are involved with everything from finance to production to marketing and events management,” Ms Browne said.
“They go out and meet with businesses, take the photographs, design the artwork and produce the finished product.”
The calendar’s major sponsor is the Rotary Club of Healesville, who earlier this year awarded them the Rotary District 9810 Service to Youth Award.
The Rotary Club’s Alan Davidson said it was good experience for students to work on the calender.
“It’s a terrific training program,” he said. “It teaches the students what business is about and how everything works.”
So successful has the calendar been that the team is starting to make small profits, which they are investing, back into other youth initiatives.
“They are now able to share those profits into providing opportunities for other kids to explore pathways into business studies, media and financial management,” Ms Browne said.
“It really has been a community project and the students are not only reinvesting into their own projects but new talent and projects as well.”
For more information on Bang Productions and the 2008 Community Calendar call Karin Manley 5962 3905.