SchoolAid charity marks milestone 

When Clontarf’s Sean Gordon started a charity empowering children to become philanthropists 25 years ago, he never dreamed it would raise $6.7 million dollars, engage hundreds of thousands of youngsters and help communities across the world and Australia.

SchoolAid, which marked the milestone anniversary late last year, aims to reduce youth anxiety, depression, and suicide by focusing on philanthropy, kindness, and gratitude.

The charity mobilises school students to raise money and do good in their communities in a bid to not only aid those affected by disasters, but to help children feel good about themselves and the future.

It all started two years after Sean, the then Bega Valley SES controller, was involved in the rescue mission at Thredbo following a devastating landslide that claimed 18 lives in 1997.

Sean says the experience and previous roles as a road and flood rescue volunteer, changed the way he thought about life’s ups and downs.

“It helped me enormously to get a sense of perspective about the scale of my issues in the world,” he says.

The former school principal says a conversation with a Year 5 pupil, who thought humanity would be wiped out before he turned 25, forced him to act.

SchoolAid started with a trial in the Bega Valley involving 22 schools.

“We raised about $40,000 as a proof of concept for the Turkey earthquake (fundraising effort in 1999). I thought this is working, so then I took it to the national (principals’) conference (that year),” he says.

The principals realised they could have a greater impact as a collective.

“It really became a charity of the Australian Primary Principals’ Association because, if they didn’t say yes, there was no way of running it,” Sean explains.

“I started an appeal for East Timor that day and we raised $160,000 and built the first school in Dili.

“It gave them (pupils) some sense of ability to respond to stuff they see on the news.”

Since then, the organisation has raised money for communities affected by natural disasters and catastrophes in Australia and overseas.

SchoolAid built a school in Banda Aceh after the Boxing Day Tsunami, raised $970,000 following the Queensland floods in 2011 which was given to affected schools in the form of mini grants, and raised $865,000 after the Victorian bushfires in 2009.

Sean says children had been traumatised by what they saw during the fires, so some of the money raised was used to ease their distress.

“We worked with an agency down there and did a 12-month music program in those schools to help the kids process their grief,” he explains.

SchoolAid also raised more than $300,000 for those affected by the Beslan massacre in Russia, and, in partnership with World Vision, created an uplifting space for traumatised children and community members.

“We built this unbelievable park and amphitheatre for children to perform with fountains and swings. It’s called The Australian Peace Park or something like that,” he says.

SchoolAid has mobilised to respond to major catastrophes but also delivered small scale projects.

“We reckon about 65 per cent of every school in Australia has been involved (at some stage through fundraising activities),” he says.

Other schools have been more engaged, forming action groups to champion causes put forward by students and using crowdfunding to raise money.

SchoolAid has a national awards program for outstanding young philanthropists, a national accreditation program for schools and a social action team kit so any school can organise philanthropy among its students.

Sean has plans to bring young entrepreneurship and philanthropy together to create ways to raise money for projects to make the world a better place.

“We’ve done some good things. I just want us to scale (up). At my tender age, I really need it to fly on its own,” he says.

Sean is now looking for a pro-bono young gun CEO, who wants to take the charity to the next level.

Peninsula schools have been involved in School Aid previously and Sean would love to engage with the local students again.

“I’m feeling really good about 2025, after 25 years,” he says.

For more information, visit schoolaid.org.au