The Sweet Spot
- Be Better Buzz Author
- May 11, 2018
- 5 min read
Updated: May 20, 2018
By Ffion Williamson //
When asked what is the best part of his job, Hayden Glass immediately answers with “I get to hand out lollies to children.”
“No, only joking!” the WA general manager of the Red Frogs quickly says, before adding “I love seeing our volunteers go to situations and places that they thought it would be really hard to engage students and do their role and they just thrive.”
Hayden Glass, 38, has been involved with the Red Frogs since taking a group of mates down to leavers in 2001. He describes the organisation as a “youth and support network which has the goal to be at the places where young people go and party,” adding “we want to help young people make positive choices, make good decisions, and if they do need help we refer them onto services that can actually help them right where they are at.”
The Red Frogs was started in 1997 during schoolies week on the Gold Coast by Andy Gourley, and has since grown to have outlets of the organisation throughout Australia and overseas.
Named after the Allens Red Frogs the group hands out, the organisation supports young people in various ways. This includes offering school seminar sessions, walk home services, answering calls on their support hotline, having food and water stations set up at events, and handing out red frog lollies.
These are all free of charge, and are set up and manned by volunteers. The organisation has more than 1500 volunteers across Australia, two being Chris Collins and Marian Monisee.
“I first heard about the organisation at a party at St Catherine’s College party in Western Australia during first year at college in 2016,” Mr Collins, 20, says. “I found I really aligned with their values and what they stood for, and it’s a great way of stepping out into the community and giving back as well.”
Monisee agrees, saying her first experience of volunteering for the organisation during Southbound in WA during 2016 was “a really great experience, and made me want to do further volunteering for them.”
The two have since volunteered at numerous events and festivals throughout WA, including various pancake stands, Falls Festivals and at Test Matches at the WACA.
The small population of WA means that the Red Frogs attends most of the major parties, festivals and schoolies events that attract young people. “In February during University O-week, we did 45 events in seven days, so it is hard to say how many events we attend each year. But we are probably saying we help around the 2-million-person mark each year.”
“That’s people who are getting a high five, getting a cup of water, or actually just getting someone to come alongside them to make sure they are doing okay,” says Mr Glass.
Mr Glass believes that these actions, though small, have a large impact on the people they help.
One person, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Red Frogs helped her immensely in an uncomfortable situation at a party she was attending. “I was receiving some unwanted attention from a male party attendee, and I was sitting with him near the Red Frogs station. I simply signalled with my foot that I wanted some help from them, and they immediately came over and helped me,” she says. “They came over and handled the situation really well, simply by distracting him, sitting him down and talking him through the situation.”
Although the organisation has grown considerably since it was founded over 20 years ago (in 1997 80kgs of Allen’s Frogs Alive Red Frogs were handed out, compared to over 20 tonnes across Australia in 2016), Mr Glass says that limited resources still act as a constraint as to what they can and cannot do.
“A lot of that comes down to limited finances,” he says. “But I have never wanted to lead by a balance sheet or a profit statement. So if I’ve got visions for something I’ll find resources, and I’ll find a way to do it. It might not look like I would like it to, but I’ll want to do something because that’s better than nothing.”
The increase in social media usage and fear of missing out (or FOMO) also creates an added pressure for the Red Frogs, with Mr Glass saying that “even for our volunteers, they want to make sure they are at the latest parties and hanging out with friends.”
Ms Monisee agrees, and says that whilst volunteering for the Red Frogs ‘you do see the other side of the festival.’ “There is always the temptation to get rowdy, but when you put on that Red Frogs shirt you can’t do that.”
Mr Glass says peer pressure is a major cause of young people making bad decisions in regard to how they are going to party, and says that “they make decisions based on the popular response and haven’t thought about the long-term consequences; not only for them but also for their families.”
Bad decision making and irresponsible drinking are major causes of why young people need help by the Red Frogs, with Ms Monisee saying that in order to volunteer for the Red Frogs “you need to be able to bounce back from things you wouldn’t see yourself doing or being a part of, such as taking care of people with vomit all over themselves.” She adds that “You need constant positivity, and you need to be able to keep close to you your own values and view everything through non-judgemental eyes.”
Volunteers are an essential element to the Red Frogs, with both Mr Collins and Ms Monisee thoroughly recommending the experience to anyone.
“Just seeing how much you can give back by being nice to someone and just being there for them when they need it the most is by far the best part of volunteering for the Red Frogs,” Mr Collins says.
And as for the worst part, both agree that there is no singular worst part. “Volunteering can be tough, like I remember my bed for Southbound was hard as a rock,” Ms Monisee laughs. “But that’s all a part of the experience, and was made up for by the pancakes the next day!”
Mr Collins says that although there are some undesirable moments involved in volunteering, such as there being “lots of late nights and walking people home”, it’s these moments that are “also the most rewarding, so that stuff goes hand in hand in hand with the best parts”.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a worst part about volunteering for them, as the worst parts definitely become the best parts,” Mr Collins says.
Despite now being a volunteer for the organisation, Ms Monisee says she has been helped countless times by the Red Frogs herself. “The help they gave me was fantastic. To have the understanding that we are all humans and that we all deserve to have our dignity upheld and have someone care about us is incredibly reaffirming,” she says. “To be able to give back to them as a volunteer now you just get this pure sort of feeling that there is good in the world, and to be able to be a part of that is just so rewarding.”
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