Boys to the Bush Bathurst gala night a success at Panthers Leagues Club

What started out as an Albury teacher wanting to help young boys living in disadvantaged circumstances, has grown into an organisation giving its participants a chance at a life they otherwise may not have been afforded.

Boys to the Bush founder Adam Demamiel worked as a teacher the in special needs and behavioural management sectors, before realising the widespread need for help, guidance and acceptance by so many underprivileged kids.

So Mr Demamiel and a few mates began running camps to try and help whoever they could. But they never thought it would grow to what Boys to the Bush has become.

"I was doing some camps and boys' programs at our school and getting good success, and then we thought we'd just run some camps. We didn't ever envisage that it would become all of this," he said.

"For some kids it's as simple as trying to get them to school, teaching them to respect women, learning social skills - we have a lot of kids come to us with disabilities or impairments so we work a lot on community participation and social skills.

"But for other kids that are a bit older it might be, 'let's get you tooled up and trained up and ready for employment.'"

The gala night - held at Panthers Bathurst - was an opportunity to bring Boys to the Bush staff, sponsors and volunteers together, as well as other community members, to see the impact all of their contributions have had.

The event attracted around 200 guests, who all did their bit to raise money for the organisation. Between ticket purchases, a raffle and an auction, the community came together for a good cause.

"We've got a lot of our community volunteers, a lot of staff, a lot of sponsors, farmers and just a number of people who care about what we do," Mr Demamiel said.

"We're getting more and more support from our communities and that's probably the big thing. We're really fortunate that we get to engage with the kids and it's up to the towns to buy into it and let us come to the farms, the businesses, donate money, turn up to events, and Bathurst has been brilliant.

"Our staff are inundated with opportunities to take kids to learn stuff from good people, so it's exciting."

Boys to the Bush is now set up in Albury, Forbes and Bathurst, with around 15 staff members part of the local team after only a few years.

Mr Demamiel said it's great to see the Bathurst team grow from one staff member to over a dozen, and he thanked the community for its contributions to helping young boys and men live a life everyone deserves.

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