March 17 2010

Every year Laing ORourke runs an on-line Christmas campaign with clients. The campaign involves our clients interacting with us on-line and, in return, we donate $20 on their behalf to a charity of our choice.

This year, the $10,000 raised went to road safety education organisation, RYDA Australia, a program aimed at reducing death and injury amongst our young people on Australian roads

The RYDA road safety education program targets 16 to17 year olds who are at the stage of their lives when they start to drive or ride in a vehicle driven by their peers.

Facilitated in partnership with Rotary, the one day RYDA Program includes six sessions that are designed to be interactive and cover a broad range of topics including hazard perception, stopping distances, alcohol and fatigue plus financial responsibilities.

“The program is presented by road safety professionals including police and driving instructors and to date over 130,000 high school students across Australia have had the opportunity to attend this potentially lifesaving program,” said RYDA Director, Greg Rappo.

“RYDA Australia is a not-for-profit organisation; students attending the program only pay approximately 50% of the actual program cost, and therefore we need ongoing financial support to ensure the cost to students is kept to a minimum.

“Laing O’Rourke’s generous donation will help us enormously as we continue to expand our services, with approximately 300 program days scheduled for this year,” said Greg.

Photo: Laing O’Rourke’s Norman Pack and Peter Slattery present a $10,000 cheque to RYDA Chairman Terry Birss.