Pastoral Care News
Aesop, the ancient Greek fabulist and storyteller was quoted as saying “No act of kindness, however small is ever wasted”. This has been demonstrated time and time again by the students, their families and staff of the MCC community. This term we have been involved in a range of activities that supports local, national, as well as international initiatives.
We have joined Mrs. McIntosh and her son Callum collect plastic lids as part of the “Lids for Kids” activity. To date, we have handed over an estimated 1500 lids; which equates to 3 prosthetic limbs. In particular, we must make special mention of Nicole McCarthy from Community Kids Daycare whose contribution was somewhat remarkable. We will continue to act as a collection base next term until the end of the year.
Our clothing pool and water bottle program are still operating and I have a range of summer uniforms available, so please do not hesitate to contact me if assistance is required.
Our passionate TAS staff, Mrs Shannon, Miss McMahon and Mrs Davidson along with our team of student and staff volunteers cooked for CAREVAN three times this term making a positive difference for the lives of many within our community. Staff already have an extremely busy work schedule however this simple act of kindness demonstrates their faith and service in action; thank you.
Towards the later part of the term we hosted a “Caritas Just Leaders Day” facilitated by one of the organisation’s national educators Chris Nolan from Sydney. Students and staff from St Francis, Leeton joined our C.A.T Leaders from year 10 in this inaugural event. One of the participants, Analiesa Belfiore has written a short report of the day included in this edition of the school’s newsletter. All students found the day to be a rewarding experience and are starting to look for ideas for future activities.
On the 16th of September in week 9, Year 10 students from Marian Catholic College and students from St Francis De Sales gathered to discuss the true meaning of leadership within our schools and the world in the “Caritas Just Leader’s Day”. Chris, a member from Caritas Australia raised many questions within our groups by first of all stating that “Creating awareness is the most important outcome in a successful cause”. From this, we were encouraged to network and make connections with those from St Francis and were instructed to work as groups to establish the key features of a leader through an acrostic poem.
Breaking in to small groups, combining students from both schools we played a game where we had five rubber bands tied together and our challenge was to make a plastic cup tower by working as a team. This activity required a plan, some initiative and a group effort to master the task.
The next session allowed Chris to explain that Caritas is the 2nd most widespread charity within the world; working in many countries; with only the Red Cross having more projects.
Chris also brought to our attention the shocking facts and statistics that at times were difficult to comprehend. We learned in just half an hour that there are so many countries and people around the world that are at huge disadvantages from water resources, energy or even proper hygiene facilities; everyday items that we may take for granted sometimes. We learned that Caritas works with villages in those countries to work with and help improve the resources they already have, and working with these people also helps encourage change within their communities in the future.
Throughout the day we had a debate within our groups about who we thought was the most influential person in the world, which gave us a chance to get to know one another and bond over similar ideas.
We all spent lunch together and during the final session we were asked to discuss a plan with the goal of starting to work towards a cause of our very own. From saving water to decreasing our energy footprint, we all came up with some very interesting causes and were encouraged to work together to possibly achieve our idea within or even outside our schools.
Overall, it was a very eye-opening, valuable and fun experience to discuss and listen to what it takes to be a leader in our school or perhaps even become a leader for the world.
A Belfiore
"Pyramids for Puppies"
This week our “Pyramids for Puppies” activity was finalized. The response to the activity was beyond our wildest dreams. Whilst the actual building of 30 plus pyramids in a short period of time; with no real rules or regulations can only be described as somewhat chaotic it was an awesome way to end the term. Our C.A.T President, Amanda Harrison has also written an account of the activity.
During term 3, the Community Action Team focused our attention on Needy Paws. Throughout these ten weeks we have been encouraging and educating students regarding the importance of responsible pet ownership, through promoting the idea of “Adopt Don’t Shop.” This campaign is a worldwide approach to reducing the abuse of puppy farms and is currently saving lives daily. Throughout this term, our initiative was “Pyramids for Puppies” which consisted of many fun activities that engaged our whole school community, while also spreading awareness and helping a charitable cause.
This term, each homeroom was asked to create a pyramid constructed from cans of dog food and our expectations were by far exceeded. On the 26th of September, after weeks of dog food collections, our whole school gathered on the oval during homeroom and each homeroom began building their impressive pyramids. After competing with fellow homerooms and attempting to steady the sky-high pyramids, we had our winners, 7.1, 9.3, 9.2 and 9.4 (in no particular order). These homerooms will be listed on the “Wall of Fame” for their marvelous efforts and treated with an amazing surprise. We thank every homeroom for getting involved and we especially thank Mrs Virginia Tropeano for collecting the dog food on behalf of Needy Paws and Kenzi from The Area News for capturing and enjoying the morning with us! But this was not the end of our day, during lunch, we held a sausage sizzle and cake store that are always enjoyed by everyone. This proved to be great fun and we even held a raffle, where the four winners could win an adorable puppy plushie of their own. By the end of the day, our school’s Mission of Vision Statement was fulfilled with pride through the collaboration of all our school’s students and most importantly, we had an incredible amount of dog food, a sea of happy faces and a mission that had been accomplished.
Amanda H
THANK YOU!!
On behalf of the C.A.T I would like to thank everyone who has supported our activities this term. We are truly blessed to be in such a community-minded environment.
I hope that during the next two weeks everyone gets the opportunity to relax and unwind. I hope that our year 12 students remember to practice self-care as part of their preparation for their upcoming exams and MOST importantly you all take some time to be kind to yourself.
Have a wonderful break; stay safe and stay happy.
Regards Sue Hone (Pastoral Care Worker)