Caritas K

On Tuesday, a number of our St Joseph's College students and staff, along with students from St Mary's Primary School and members of St Mary's Parish, participated in Caritas Ks.

Every day millions of individuals around the world are forced to walk many kilometers to fetch water, obtain food, attend school or flee from natural disaster or confilct.

In an act of solidarity, participants were asked to put their compassion into action by walking laps of St Mary's Parish to raise awareness and funds for these people and their struggles.

Walking the block around the parish equates to 600m. The average child in Africa walks roughly 10 laps of the parish just to get the necessary water to survive.

Rain and wind did not deter our participants, as we are all aware that people who have to walk for food, water or to safety cannot afford to worry about the weather.

The event was a great display of community spirit and there were plenty of parishioners joining in the activity as well, either as traffic marshals, looking after coffee and tea, or attending a talk by Jess Black, daughter of parishioners Doug and Malia Black, who has recently returned from working in refugee camps in Kenya and Moldova on the border to the Ukraine and Afghanistan.

We would like to make special mention of the following people for their support in making the day such a success and helping to raise over $7000 for Caritas: 

• Foods and Hands on Learning classes for baking and bagging up rocky road, slices and biscuits which our student leaders sold on the day for a donation.
• Mr Mai’s Hands on Learning class bundling up wood sticks for walkers to carry.
• Student Leaders on the day: Jaxon Hogan, Eden Thomson, Zoe Campbell, Annabelle Turner, Meaghan Gould, Daniel Adriaans and Sienna Cook.
• 8C for coming twice both in P1 and P2!
• Mrs O’Brien for her help before the event.
• Ms Molluso and Mrs Phillips for their help on the day.
• OED department for providing backpacks for walkers to carry.
• Dale, Michael and Clint delivering and setting up gazebos, pinboards and tables.
• Cassie Leopold providing lovely music on the day!

We have some sweet treats left over which we hope to sell on Friday at our Foundation Day celebrations.