By Mikayla van Loon
In support of teaching young people the importance of being road safe, Croydon Junior Football Club will be taking to the field on Sunday 17 July donning the TAC Road Safety armbands.
This will be the first time the club has really thrown its support behind the TAC campaign but has always seen the necessity in sharing the message of being sensible on the roads.
Vice president Cameron Dawson said while it is a message for all at the club, for the age group of 13, 14 and 15 year olds preparing to get their learners, it’s crucial to ensuring their safety.
“We want to get the message across just how important it is for Road Safety and obviously the impact it can have if something does go wrong,” he said.
“Everyone’s on their mobile phones a lot now and it only takes a split second to be distracted and it can change your whole life. So we’re just trying to get the message across to the young kids.”
Captains from each of Croydon’s teams will be wearing specially designed jumpers featuring the number zero denoting the number of lives that should be lost on the roads.
Under 12s captain Nate said learning about road safety now is important “because if we can save one life, it’s worth it.”
Fellow teammate Pat said watching his sister learn to drive and not liking it very much makes him think about what his own driving experience will be like.
Both, although young, have themselves witnessed drivers being silly and taking risks on the road, whether it be driving with their parents or walking home from school.
“It’s worrying because it won’t just affect their life, it will affect other people’s lives as well,” Nate said.
For Nate, while keen to get out onto the football oval to play a good game against Lilydale, he also said he is looking forward to “giving that advice to people and letting that message out into the world so hopefully we can save some lives.”
Playing against some local rivals in East Ringwood and Lilydale, Cameron said the good thing about the TAC round is it brings the community together to achieve one aim.
Having been organising the event for at least six weeks, Croydon have engaged local police members and other emergency service personnel to be there on the day to make some special presentations.
Meeting some of the players and handing over Nate’s captaincy jumper on Thursday 14 July, Maroondah Police Service Area Acting Inspector Jean Arouff said community sport offers a great opportunity to spread the road safety message.
“Sport mirrors life. If we can be involved in sports, which delivers a lot of key messages about life, it’s a fantastic opportunity. They’re also having fun but whilst they’re having fun, they’re learning about road safety which is a great initiative,” he said.
“It’s also important for police to be seen at grassroot level, delivering the message, to make them understand how little things such as riding a bicycle, to being in a car, to being amongst other road users is important to the safety of our family and the community.”
Not only does having that emergency services presence at community sport enable the conversation around driver safety but also provides young people with a positive perception of police, firefighters and paramedics.
“Ambulance members, the fire brigade, and the police are members of the community,” Acting Inspector Arouff said.
“It’s nice to break that barrier, from being in uniform to being amongst the community and our neighbourhood policing framework is geared towards police being back at grassroot level and so being a part of these days is a really fantastic opportunity.”
Games kick off at 9am at Croydon Oval on Hewish Road, followed by the club’s Back 2 presentation evening in the senior club rooms.
