Donuts making a difference at school – and beyond
Sydney’s Parramatta Marist High School has a new Bronut Day record - 900 donuts sold in 10 minutes.
The aim? Share a donut and a conversation with a mate. It raises funds for Gotcha4Life - and awareness about reaching out to make a difference.
“It’s about building social connections, kindness, and making sure people are recognised – that they know they’re seen. They go home and think ‘You know what, I felt part of something today. It’s been a huge success,” says PDHPE teacher Luke Barry-Donnellan.
Bronut Day began as a real-world project created by students as part of a mental health teaching and learning program developed by Luke.
Inspired by seeing Gotcha4Life founder Gus Worland’s Man Up series, Luke invited Gus and Tomorrow Man to talk to the boys and deliver workshops in 2017. They’ve been back every year since.
The donuts disappear in minutes, but the school’s program keeps the conversation going year-round.
“We start our program in Year 9. It’s having that constant conversation, discussions around why is it important to talk about our emotions, how we support our friends, how to have quality conversations.
By Year 11, they have the knowledge, skills and ability to pass that on to the younger students. They have such a powerful experience with Tomorrow Man and our program makes that workshop even more effective because it’s not a one off. It gives it context and it’s been a very impactful thing at our school.”
“Getting the boys driving it is the most important thing to me because the student's voice is so powerful.”
It was then-Year 9 student Monty Duncombe who came up with the idea of donuts.
“Our goal was to create an environment where you don’t feel judged for speaking up, where everyone has a mate,” Monty said. “I was getting messages from parents saying it’s changed their son. I was so proud. It’s come a long way.”
Now a Bachelor of Communications and Media student at Macquarie University, Monty still stays connected to his schoolmates.
