© Daily Telegraph

2009 is the second year of Dragons Community and what a year it has been! Dragons Community has developed a comprehensive program that aims to have a positive impact on the lives of people within our community that stretches from Kogarah in the north to Batemans Bay in the south of New South Wales.

Dragons Community revolves around eight pillars; Education, Health, Mentoring, Women and Girls, Charity, Environment, Cultural and Grassroots. Within these pillars we have been developing a number of successful programs and initiatives, with a number of community organisations.

Some Key achievements for Dragons Community in 2009 include;

* 3540 hours spent in the community by Dragons NRL and NYC players

* Total Charitable Donations of over $150,000 in 2009

* A Community focused Season Launch which brought together all Club stakeholders to work toward completing community challenges across Dragons Community pillars and, in doing so, creating a ‘Perfect Day’ for some of our community members. This was a first in Australian sport.

* Distributing 15,000 copies of ‘Dragons in the Classroom’ Educational Resource for Stage 2 and 3, free of charge to all Primary Schools in the Dragons region.

* 100% completion rate for all participants in the PCYC ‘Footy Fever’ mentoring program (up from 79% in the 2008 program).

* A 44% increase in the number of schools involved in our Teacher’s Aide Program involving Dragons NYC players.

* Visiting 16 schools during August in support of the NRL One Community’s Rugby League Reads. To develop the program further, Dragons-specific Learning with League classroom resources were produced and an online book review competition was run, targeting all schools in the region – a first for the Club. The competition received 960 entries and the webpage promoting the competition received over 2000 hits

* Dragons Community visited 28 schools as part of Positive Behaviour for Success (PBS). A NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) supported mentoring program, where players made presentations and encouraged positive behaviour from students. There has been a 40% increase in the number of schools participating from the Illawarra and South Coast regions over the two year period the Dragons have been involved.

* As part of the Health and Grassroots pillars, and in conjunction with the ARLD and CRL, Dragons Community;
- Conducted 69 Eat Well, Play Well, Stay Well (EWPWSW) Healthy Lifestyle Assemblies across our regions, reaching 16,446 students. The assemblies demonstrated to kids the importance of living a healthy, active lifestyle, 800 Dragons Active clinics were also conducted in primary and high schools.
- Conducted 1,486 school clinics, reaching 90,457 students, hosted 60 gala days and 6 holiday clinics.

Be sure to check the Dragons Community Photo Gallery to see your favourite Dragons' players out and about in the community in 2009.

Dragons Community would also like to say a big thank you to all Staff, Community Partners and Community Organisations who have been involved in making 2009 a tremendous success for Dragons Community.