A fascination with alpacas has led to a heartwarming moment shared by Victory Lutheran College students and participants at Mercy Connect.
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The not-for-profit service has three outlets in the Albury area where about 100 people with a disability take part in day programs.
A group of VCAL students visited the learning centre on Bell Street in Lavington during May and June to get hands-on experience working in the sector.
As part of that, everyone in the group wrote an introductory biography – so did VCAL co-ordinator Rachael Fenselau, who mentioned her 30 alpacas at home.
This sparked the interest of participants who regularly saw the animals on a property on their way to Albury tip, after collecting rubbish for one of their programs.
“So we brought in a spinning wheel given to us by the Albury-Wodonga Handweavers and Spinners Guild, for the participants to spin fleece,” Ms Fenselau said.
“They enjoyed it so much the students decided to donate it to Mercy Connect.
“This is the first year we’ve run VCAL at Victory, and the group are obtaining employability skills during these visits and communicating with different types of people.”
Emilia Tomljanovic, 17, enjoyed getting to know the participants.
“It’s been really inspiring,” she said.
As a final goodbye to the participants, the VCAL group returned to the learning centre with their donation and two of Ms Fenselau’s suri alpacas.
Mercy Connect participant Bradley Barrett thanked the students and staff for enabling the connection.
“I’ve been here for five years and I’m really happy,” he said.
Mercy Connect chief executive Damian Lacey was keen to see the relationship with Victory continue.
“With the NDIS, demand for workers is growing, so if young people are having a positive experience in this sector, that’s a huge positive,” he said.