PORT ADELAIDE’s younger players got a life lesson on Tuesday when they toured Ronald McDonald House in North Adelaide and met some of the families that use the facilities.

The organisation, which is celebrating its 20^th anniversary in Adelaide in 2020, accommodates more than 200 families with seriously ill children at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital each year.

First to fourth year players from the Power list visited the site on Tuesday morning, getting a first-hand look at the ten units and ten bedrooms and the other living quarters for families.

It was a valuable experience for third-year defender Joel Garner.

“It was a bit of an eye opener for us to check out what goes on and to sit and hear some of the stories from the families and what they go through day to day,” he explained to portadelaidefc.com.au.

“A lot of them were down at the hospital and they spend a lot of time here – there were some mums who had been here for six months with their kids and doing appointments at the hospital so it’s a really good place for them to come and spend their evenings and have time as a family.”

The visit was part of a weekly program for Port Adelaide’s younger players run by SANFL coach Matthew Lokan who also has a role in AFL player development.

“Our first to fourth year players do a lot of work together,” Lokan said.

“It’s about building the connection with our younger guys. 22 of our group are first to fourth year players and we run a program every week which encourages them to come out of their shells, grow within a smaller group and just build that confidence and those life skills to not only make them better footballers but make them better people as well.

“Today was an opportunity to come here to Ronald McDonald House and to see that some families are doing it really tough and just appreciate that we are very lucky that we get to work in an AFL environment every day and there are some families out there that are doing it really difficult.

“It was a fantastic day, one that I know the boys got a lot out of and hopefully we can build and grow them, not just as football players but as I said, as people as well.”

The players taking part in the program elected late last year to find more opportunities to give back to the community.

One of the things they have been doing is raising money to donate to Ronald McDonald House, so to see the operation first hand has increased their desire to fundraise.

“As a playing group we’ve been getting the boys to chip in a bit of money, so on our camp we had a games night at the end and everybody brought $50 along and that went towards this so we had a bit of fun with it but all the boys knew the money was going to a good cause,” Garner said.

“Today the boys played a game with magic squares, where you pick a square, put in $5 and if your square comes out you win a bit of a prize but most of the money is going towards this foundation so it’s a really good idea.”