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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-20 Daily Xml
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MIDNIGHT BASKETBALL PROGRAM

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:55): I would like to speak about a community event that I have attended a number of times in my electorate over the last few years, and it is Midnight Basketball. I recently had the honour of bringing minister Kenyon, the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing, out to see the youth of my area that participate in Midnight Basketball. It is coordinated by Paul Zimney, who is the coordinator of Midnight Basketball with the City of Salisbury, and with his team of volunteers, which is considerable, and the local Blue Light Disco and various other community organisations. They run an extensive program that won a high commendation award at the Parks and Leisure awards in Perth recently. I would like to put on the record my appreciation for them.

The Midnight Basketball program combines both sport and education life workshops in an enterprising format targeting young people aged 12-18 who are most at risk. One of the underlying factors that contributes to the success of the program is that it successfully brings together the community, parents, young people and leaders of the community. The City of Salisbury has been very proactive in working with young people in the northern suburbs and starting this program off. It has helped quite a lot of young people in the north who have been disadvantaged and are looking for things to do on a Saturday night.

This program allows them, by registration—and often the registrations are more then the spaces available, because the program has become so popular in its short history—to get picked up, taken to the basketball and they play a number of games. In between the basketball games they have very useful life education sessions, and they must go to those if they are going to participate in the sport.

Some of the sessions that I have witnessed recently include a workshop on CVs, and at the end of that you could register for another one on a Saturday morning to help you get a Saturday morning or a school holiday job. There are other sessions on drugs, alcohol, awareness of disability, law and order, good behaviour in the community, etc. They are very practical sessions. The breadth of what they do is truly inspiring. Not only that, over time as the program has emerged, parents have come and supported their children. In fact, the night I was there most recently, parents were having a seminar of their own about how to help their children have safe parties at home to ensure that their parties were not disrupted by gate crashers.

Midnight Basketball also works alongside Blue Light Disco, and I would like to acknowledge the humorous Nick Schooley of the northern zone of the South Australia Police force and his fantastic crew who donate time and support for Midnight Basketball on a regular basis. They truly are, with Paul and his crew of volunteers, the heart and soul of this competition. It is often a time consuming arrangement that happens every Saturday night. They start early, pick the kids up, and often it is past 1 o'clock before the volunteers and Paul and his crew leave, having escorted the children safely home to their parents.

Another event I recently had the opportunity to attend that I would like to speak about is an inaugural night shoot that occurred at the Virginia State Shooting Park Complex. I was honoured to go to Virginia, again with minister Kenyon, to participate in some interesting events. I have never had the honour of shooting a shotgun before and it was a really interesting night. The state government has recently supported the state shooting park with the installation of lights for night shooting via a grant. We attended that evening with the International Clay Target Club and got to shoot clay targets for the first time using their new lights. There are many people at that club who are excellent Australia-wide and international competitors with their shotguns and clay target shooting.

That night, there were all ages of people there, who recreated at the Virginia area, who have been lifelong clay target shooters. Indeed, I think I met men who have been there since their childhood who are in their 80s, who are passionate about this sport. I would particularly like to acknowledge Dino Oliviera, who is an expert in this area, and the rest of the club who made us feel so welcome at night and who I look forward to visiting again as I learn more about the sport and the wonderful work they do at the State Shooting Park.

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