Schoolies Week with a difference
International aid: Leongatha Rotary Club president Paul Beck thanks the Mary MacKillop students for their presentation. They are from left: Emalie Gordon, Beth Dortmans, Emily Smith, Paul Beck, Olivia Fiddelaers, Christie Panozzo and Jessica Shea. Absent: Hannah Beggs and Megan Ryan.
LEONGATHA Rotary Club last week welcomed home six Mary MacKillop College students whom they helped sponsor on an unusual Schoolies Week.
Many students mark the end of their secondary education by joining with their fellow students to relax and enjoy a well earned break.
For many this means getting together with thousands of others for Schoolies Week, often on Queensland’s Gold Coast or at similardestinations.
This year however, eight students from Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College, Leongatha, decided to experience something different.
Rather than attend the traditional Schoolies in their own country, they visited The Philippines to experience firsthand its cultural differences, as well as the day-to-day life of the people who live in impoverished circumstances in a Third World country.
With arrangements made with the help of Leongatha missionary David Gray, the students spent 10 days at the Cornerstone Home School for homeless and impoverished persons in Lapu Lapu City, Cebu, a province of The Philippines.
What will be long remembered by the students however, was that in spite of the desperate economic circumstances of the people they visited, they were nonetheless happy, cheerful and thrilled to have the students stay.
The experience gave the students an invaluable insight into the huge inequalities that exist in the world not far from our own shores and just how well off we in Australia are in comparison. Although material well being alone does not equate with happiness, the vital importance of overseas aid programs, whether through government agencies or private assistance programs as provided by David Gray and others, is now most apparent.
The students personally contributed to the expenses of the visit, but were also supplemented by the parish community of St Laurences in Leongatha and the Leongatha Lions and the Rotary clubs.
The students took goods and cash donations for distribution to the needy and homeless people they met and were involved directly in helping the mission in its daily programs and activities.
The students gave an excellent presentation to Rotarians. It was clear they had experienced a life changing excursion that will no doubt impact on how they view the world they live in and the importance they attach to being involved in assistance programs for fellow human beings, especially those in less fortunate circumstances than themselves.
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