The St George Illawarra Dragons and Illawarra Hawks teamed up as part of the Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service's (IAMS) Healthy Deadly Kids Program at Kanahooka's Hayes Park Public School on Tuesday.
Tyrell Sloan, Bobbi Law, and Loko Pasifiki Tonga were the Dragons on hand who teamed up with Hawks stars Tyler Harvey, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, Mason Peatling, Luca Yates and Kobe McDowell-White for a friendly game of basketball.
The players hung around afterwards to hand out balls and backpacks, snap some photos, and sign autographs for the students.
The event was held to celebrate the school's Healthy Deadly Kids program which is an eight-week, all-inclusive health and wellbeing program facilitated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders.
Law and former NBL star Tyson Demos, who work for the IAMS, have had the opportunity to build strong relationships with the students and teachers at Hayes Park over the past eight weeks of the program.
"We invite both the Dragons and the Hawks down to play an exhibition basketball game against our students who have participated in the Healthy Deadly Kids program," Law said.
"It's been really good seeing the fellas come down from both teams and just getting around the community and these kids. It's been a really good day. There's a lot of smiling kids and I think we've made it a really good end to the school term for them."
Law, who was nominated for the NRL’s 2023 Veronica White Medal for Woman of the Year in recognition of her diligent work in the community, understands the importance of being connected with the community and is thankful to act as a role model for the children that she works with.
"I just think I have a really unique platform to create that positive change," she said.
"I've always been passionate giving back, especially being a proud Indigenous woman. I just want to use my journey and my story just to hopefully influence the next generation of boys and girls. It doesn't matter if they don't want to go down the path of rugby league, I just hope to inspire them in anything they want to do... I'm proud to be a part of this club. The club allows me to do all this sort of stuff that I love doing and I'm very thankful for that."
Sloan, who grew up just down the road from Hayes Park Public School, echoed Law's thoughts on the importance that these sorts of events have for the community.
"It's very special not only for ourselves but for the kids," Sloan said.
"It's a good opportunity to interact with our community again. It's always fun to come back and give back to the kids and being here with the Hawks it's good to show that Illawarra connection. I've actually been going to a few of their games, so I've been loving this. It's good to see them going well and hopefully we can get on the back of that in our season."
