Social Justice

Social Justice:

-  Founder's Day Festival

-  Year 9 Christmas Food Hamper Collection

-  Year 7 Christmas Gift collection for Walgett

-  Collection for the Philippines

-  The St Vincent de Paul Matthew Talbot Men’s Hostel toiletries packs for Christmas

-  Social Justice Immersions

Social Justice

Founder's Day Festival began with a superb rendition of “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” sung by Lachlan Donlevy and backed up by a Year 12 band.  All students then formed into groups and heard from our guest speakers:  Ms Sandy Hollis from the Jewish War Museum, Ms Makiz Ansari from Amity College and our own Mr Adrian Brannan about “interfaith dialogue” and the “Golden Rule.”

A wonderful lunch was prepared by our amazing P&F team followed by the entertainment section of the afternoon which included the smash hit “Johnny B. Goode” sung by our very own Mr Couani.

Again a special thanks to John and Cathryn Leo, Guy Russo and Nadine Robson for their ongoing major support of this great annual social justice event.

The Year 9 Christmas Food Hamper Collection continues. Students from Year 9 will be visiting homerooms to collect Christmas-type foods to be distributed to the less fortunate in our local community.

The Year 7 Christmas Gift collection for Walgett has begun. Students can leave a children's present under the tree that will go to the families in one of our partner schools, St Joseph’s Primary School in Walgett. We ask that all presents be wrapped and marked for a boy or girl and their age group which will help in distributing them to the right kids.

The Edmund Rice Society continues to collect shoes, light clothing and coloured pencils, sharpeners, rubbers etc. for some of the poorest villages in the Philippines.

There are collection points in the foyer for all three drives currently underway: the Year 9 Christmas Hamper Appeal, the Year 7 Christmas Gift Giving Tree and the Edmund Rice Society Philippines clothes and shoes collection.

Your generous donations to  The St Vincent de Paul Matthew Talbot Men’s Hostel toiletries packs for Christmas have been put into packs to be delivered to Matthew Talbot. There are almost 50 separate packs to be handed out to the homeless men of Sydney and we thank you all for your generosity.

The Mission and Identity team are with Year 10 students on five separate social justice immersions:

1. St Joseph’s Walgett indigenous immersion
2. St Mary’s Bowraville indigenous immersion
3. St Edmund’s Wahroonga special needs immersion
4. St Gabriel’s special needs immersion
5. Huntington House local social justice immersion

On Monday the Huntington House social justice immersion group visited Gosford Anglican Church, the home of social justice warrior Fr Rod Bower. Whilst Fr Rod was busy supporting asylum seekers in Sydney we had a talk from his wife Kerry Bower about their faith and social justice activities. We also visited a pop up monument for White Ribbon Day and all took the oath, in front of Ms Ramsey, to stop violence against women. In the evening we went to Coast Shelter where we prepared, served and cleaned up dinner for the homeless and needy of the region.

On Tuesday, after waking to dolphins swimming in the waves at our back door, we visited St Edward’s College which is another EREA school. We joined in a Year 10 RE lesson where we discussed our various social justice activities, followed by a game of touch football and recess together. After recess we went to their indigenous outdoor learning area where we sat and conversed with their indigenous students.

Mr D Blake  -  Social Justice Coordinator