Seymour College teachers take icy plunge for motor neurone disease research

Teachers Marcus Watson, Leanne Hayek, Ruth Kearney, Stephen Garner, Jennie Gao, Christy Rilen, Ben Tarran, Derek Rimes and Keely Wright were nominated by the students to do the dunk challenge.

The nominations were in exchange for donations of vital funds for motor neurone disease research.

Year 11 student Rogan Pubpa said he was thrilled to see his teachers take on the challenge and was pleased with the outcome of the event.

“It was great, I wish for nothing more,” he said.

“It was good (that many people supported the event) because it’s for a good cause.

“I thought that it went really well and I was very surprised with the outcome.”

The DIY Big Freeze 10 Dunk Challenge was organised by the Year 11 Vocational Major students as a part of their personal development skill project.

Year 11 Vocational Major co-ordinator Leanne Hayek said getting dunked was worth it.

“It was really cold, but definitely worth it for a great cause,” she said.

“The Year 11 students have worked really, really hard to make this happen today.

Seymour College has so far raised more than $1000, twice the amount it expected, just from online donations, with more to be counted from a students’ barbecue.

Year 12 Vocational Major co-ordinator Lisa Macheras said she was truly grateful for all the donations which would go to AFL champion Neale Daniher’s charity FightMND.

“My mum has MND, so when I was speaking to some students, telling them about my mum, it was a few other students here (who said), ‘oh, I've got an uncle that passed away in a day’ or somebody else (they know).

“There was a lot of people that had a connection, so we decided that this was a good cause to do it.

“We ended up getting a donation of a dunk tank, so it went from a big event to a huge event.”

Ms Hayek said that despite the challenge, she was willing to get dunked again.

“I would do it again! Every year, multiple times,” she said.

“Definitely worth it.”