b'S U P P O RT I N GYO U N GV I C TO R I A N S F O R 1 2 5Y E A R SRETURNING TOT heNewsboysFounda- waited for a delivery of papers. They tionprovidesgrantstowere floating bits of wood with im-communityorganisationsprovised sails down the flowing gut-working with young people aged 11ters,wageringtheirpitifullysmall21 years in Victoria who are expe- earnings on the race. Most were in-riencingdisadvantage.TheNews- termittently homeless. None could boys Foundation has an impressiveread or write.history, first as a Melbourne-basedIt was what has been called the club for newsboys from 1893 untilhungry, gas-lit era of the bank crash-1973, and then as a Foundation sup- es and 28-year-old Edith Charlotte portingcommunityorganisationsOnians, the daughter of devout and working with disadvantaged youngwealthy Anglicans, was beginning a people in Victoria. lifetimes devotion to the underpriv-One simple philosophy has guidedileged boys of Melbourne. She had MelbournesNewsboyssince1893recently started volunteering at Wil-writes Gary Tippet: liam Mark Forsters City Newsboys Try Societywhich would eventual-Build the boy or girlly become known as the Melbourne Newsboys Clubfounded in 1893. right and you makeSheaskedtheboysiftheywould the world right come to a school class if she started one there. They said theyd give it a go. Throughout its long life, the or- Most,likethefirstfifteen, ganisation has remained true to itscamefromterriblypoorfami-core objective of supporting younglies,iftheywerenthomelessand peopleinourcommunitywhoalone.Manycitizensconsidered need assistance to realise their fullthem as a loud and obnoxious an-potential.noyance.EdithOniansthought Miss Edith Onians: My first boysotherwise.in 1897. One wet afternoon late the previous year she had come across thefirstofthoseskinnychildrenMelbourne newsboysas they WWW.STREAT.COM.AU/ @STREATMELBOURNE'