The Saints are proud to support Mahogany Rise Primary School and No Sausage Sizzle.

Last October saw nine children from one of Melbourne’s most disadvantaged communities represent their school and country in a unique crowdfunded overseas learning experience to the United Kingdom.

The 55 minute film, entitled No Sausage Sizzle, documents the impact of the school’s Journey to Scotland project on its nine young participants.

The 250+ individual and corporate supporters of the project gathered for the debut screening of the film at St Kilda Football Club’s Linen House Centre on Thursday 20th February 2014.

What made the project truly unique was that it has been entirely “crowdfunded”. In 8 short months Mahogany Rise raised an unprecedented $40,000 by making use of crowdfunding platform Pozible.com and subsequently sharing its campaign across various forms of social media including Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to experiencing home life with host families at Goodlyburn Primary School in central Scotland and Grazebrook Primary School in London, the nine representatives experienced Armistice Day commemorations in Paris, France.

A wide range of research literature highlights the significance of excursions that ‘broaden horizons’ for children of low socio-economic backgrounds (e.g. Bus, 1995; Goldrick-Rab, 2006) which is what drives Mahogany Rise Primary School’s passion to enable the success of this unique project.

The school set up a website at www.togetherwerise.com.au to enable supporters and the wider public to follow the project as it unfolded. The website also features background information and short video vignettes about each child participating in the project.