Director of Mission

Firstly, a special congratulations goes out to Christian Cavallaro who ended the term with a swag full of prizes from the recent colour run. Christian was MCC’s highest fundraiser and raised over $400 by himself towards the day. Special mention also goes to Mutsa Maveve and Tiffany Hoffman who also raised a substantial amount.

I thought I would finish the year with an article I wrote for the “TOGETHER” magazine this month trying to look back at what the Marian Community had achieved throughout the year. I have thoroughly enjoyed being in this new role and wanted to thank everyone in the community who has supported the role in any way.

I also wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Be safe and enjoy the holidays with family and friends and I look forward to 2019 and hopefully we can continue to be ‘on fire’ as a school community.

The Marian Way

Is there such a thing as too much charity? Winston Churchill stated, “You might make a living on what you get… but we make a life by what we give.” Marian Catholic College (MCC) fosters a holistic approach to learning. The College sees value in building each student’s capacity to serve others. Currently, in today’s climate, there is no better lesson than that of gratefulness, acceptance and the ability to seek change when it is needed. In the closing of our school year, and reflecting on our most recent acts of charity, I was intrigued into contemplating what the MCC community has achieved in 2018 as we make a life by what we have given. This life is nothing short of amazing and stands in defiance of such an opening question.

On Friday the 7th of December, at our closing Mass, the students walked down the aisle with over 36 Christmas Hampers of charity that will be delivered to families in need around Griffith through the St Vincent De Paul Society. Each hamper contained over 23 items ranging from gift vouchers to bonbons donated by students at an average cost of $5. This small, combined gift creates an overwhelming message of care expressed by our students and staff to the value of up and towards $5000. Is it results such as these we should focus on in the lead up to Christmas as a vital checkpoint in the health and wellbeing of our vibrant faith community?

It is rare that we publicise and highlight our qualities of compassion, inclusiveness, stewardship and care especially as we wait for HSC results to surface in the coming weeks. We will analyse these results and applaud much deserved commitment to an academic life. There will be photos of those who ranked highest and we will quickly meet and discuss strategies around using this year’s data of NAPLAN and HSC to ensure future success and enrolments. May I offer an alternative focal point? Take nothing away from our core business of learning, however, let us marvel at community achievement of our students including the recently graduated in 2018 as an alternative.

Is there such thing as too much charity? Maybe only, when you are doing it for the wrong reasons! This article will not rank the students on who gave the most on a scale of 100 and nor will it mention the names of the community, staff and students who led and/or orchestrated the success of the many campaigns. For then it would be too much. Let us look at the impacts instead as we would with academic success.

Project Compassion was a little project that kicked off our Year of Youth and our fundraising and charity for 2018. It intended to grow the generosity and kindness in our homeroom families. Expectations were exceeded by the true spirit of our Marian family. Enough funds were raised to support 25 young people to attain a diploma in Enterprise Development Training to provide them with income-generating skills in Nepal. Furthermore, left over funds were used to supply materials for children to learn carpentry at the Matuba Children’s Centre in Mozambique.

2018 saw our youth speak up in action around the future of our environment when they initiated a water bottle recycling program that further funded the already existing CAREVAN cooking program. The cooking program has seen classrooms full of kids volunteering at lunchtime to cook for a local van that delivers the meals to the less privileged at night. It was impossible to calculate the number of meals that have been produced by Marian in order to assist this wonderful local program. Once again, for data purposes let us simply say over 1000 meals. The funds raised so far by the recycle program was minimal, but the effect was immeasurable, as at a recent assembly a group of young men spoke up by choice, around the importance and needed support with a vision of a future for recycling in our community. This proved the initiative a flying success and once again students demonstrated education beyond the classroom and that of a worldview.

iCare kits was the social justice initiative of Term 2. This year we were able to develop 36 kits that were presented to the Linking Communities Organisation on behalf of the College. The work Linking Communities does is a vital resource in our community and we were pleased we could support their group and the people they help. The bags that the items are in were also purchased from Cotton On; the bags were a part of their Cotton On foundation range of products, which means the cost of the bags goes directly towards one of their programs in Southern Africa or Uganda. Cotton On presented the College with an award of thanks for giving $100 towards their program supplying books and bricks for a school in Uganda.

The year was only half way through and Marian had already been involved in two Catholic Youth Festivals and had the added honour of John Angotti touring from America performing in the school hall. He spent nearly two days with the school, and in this time assisted in writing the lyrics of our new school song. He agreed to do this, because as he told the students during his concert, “I believe this school is on fire!” These words resonated with the students and their charity and service stepped up another level. In Term 3, students and staff decided to give to rural aid. They ran a farmers market every Friday supplying produce and baked goods from home. We were aiming for $1000 which would buy 10 bales of hay. We were able to raise 6 times that amount which resulted in Marian supplying a full truckload of hay to regional NSW farmers.

There was still more to come… Term 4 saw Marian issue a challenge to all the schools in the Diocese through John Goonan and Catholic Mission, to raise much-needed funds to purchase a school bus for St John's in Hakha, Myanmar. The goal is $41,506 and latest reports indicated the schools were steadily creeping towards it. Marian decided to hold its first ever Colour Run to assist on Friday 30th of November. It ran in conjunction with another one of our important charity days, Project Samoa. We were attempting to run two charities on the same day and people were whispering “is this too much?”

The students clearly did not think so. The day brought much awareness to our immersion program through song and dance. A celebration of Polynesian culture with students from various other schools all assisting in the cause. Project Samoa is vital in keeping two schools alive in Samoa, St Peters Primary School and St Paul VI College. The Bishop of these two schools has publicly stated that they would no longer exist without the aid of the Marian community. The day was once again a huge success with both causes being assisted by the participation, enthusiasm and generosity of our students. There was colour and smiles everywhere. The students once again enriched their own and many others life’s by what they had given.

While there are people that have the ability to give and those who are in a position of need, there can never be enough charity. Marian Catholic College has shown that this year, with their tireless efforts of service and compassion. Schools will always be successful academically whilst we calculate, measure and collect the statistics of learning. It is what we do when we know no one is watching that truly defines our character. We are charitable, we are students and staff that care, we are a community of wonder, learning and peace where the challenges of today (like the ones mentioned here) prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow, we are Marian and proudly building holistic students that live the Marian way.

Heath Neville

Director of Mission