The Christ Church relay team, including Sam Elias, Patrick Henderson, Patrick Johnston, Tom Pennell, Lucas Richardson and Asad Yusoff, won the Primary Schools Challenge Final and raised $5000 for Autism West Support – the most of any competing team.

A Year 5 team, including Michael Paganin, Ben Cunningham, Kael Walsh, Tom Giudice, Charlie James and Charlie Wise, finished in fifth place in the final and raised $550 selling tickets for the Team Sprint Cup raffle at a local supermarket.

The charity event, held at the CCGS swimming pool, was established and organised with the help of swimming coach and old boy Bill Kirby. Corporate and social groups, sporting clubs, schools, families, local sporting identities and some of WA’s fastest sprint swimmers compete in fun, fast-paced afternoon, which follows a 6 x 50m relay format.

For the first time, the Team Sprint Cup featured the Primary Schools Challenge, allowing students to compete against fellow students and friends from around the community.

Nicola Pennell (mother of Tom) helped co-ordinate the Christ Church boys’ fundraising effort for Autism West Support, which provides support for families with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The boys sold an amazing $1250 worth of chocolate frogs and slushies – an amount that was matched generously by a parent. The $2500 was again matched, this time by BHP Billiton as part of their community philanthropy programme. The boys were very grateful to ArticChill, who provided two slushy machines free-of-charge for the popular lunchtime event, which raised $600.

Prep School Sportsmaster Brady Leckie said the boys performed amazingly well. “They demonstrated great spirit and sportsmanship to win their heat and the final and their fundraising effort was awesome,” he said.