Community Service _____________________________Page

The year has seen the continuation of the many community service endeavours that our students and staff alike are involved with outside of school hours: breakfast programs, refugee tutoring, blood bank, Outreach Van, Winter SleepOut, Vinnie’s Winter Appeal, Feed Geelong Appeal, refugee holiday programs, Samaritan House, TouCan Appeal, footy boot collections, toiletries drive and more!

In addition, students were also given opportunities to engage in community service within various classes or as a year level. Year 9 Challenge classes identifed and completed a community service project that fitted within their subject focus, Year 10 Religion classes visited with elderly members of the community and Year 11 students completed a week of community service during Activities Week. Every day I count myself lucky to be doing this job: not only does this role see me working with boys and young men but it affords me the opportunity to interact with them beyond the classroom walls. I frequently bear witness to some extraordinary moments, such as one which occurred during the weekly visits I make with Year 10 students to local aged care facilities. A staff member came to me, tears in her eyes and led me to an adjoining room. She indicated to where one of our students was sitting with quite a frail looking woman who, the staff member explained, had not spoken in almost 3 years – yet here the two were, laughing and chatting away…in fluent Croatian! It is experiences like this that I hope will contribute to each student’s recognition of just how important community service is – taking the opportunity to give something back which can give us something really valuable in return.

- Zoe Marshall, Service Learning Coordinator

Doing something for someone else and not receiving anything in return – at least, nothing in the way of monetary gain – doesn’t sound rewarding, but in fact, it can be an enormously formative experience in and of itself. Serving your community through outreach programs often takes you to see places and meet people you never would have otherwise, which is especially important for private school students, since we’ve lived most of our lives in a bubble of privilege. That’s something which will hopefully influence our views and attitudes as we venture out into the world.

- Sebastian Starcevic, Year 12

On 15 April, Year 9 Outdoor Education students did some community service work with the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee. Fifteen students swapped their regular classroom for the Torquay coastal reserves to participate in hands on conservation work near Whites Beach in Torquay as part of their outdoor education program. GORCC Education Coordinator Pete Crowcroft said the practical aspect of GORCC’s environmental education programs allowed students to see how every day action impact the environment. Students worked in small groups to remove invasive woody weeds from the dune system to allow for native revegetation in winter. The on-ground education helps develop an in depth understanding about the importance of coastal conservation in this beautiful environment we are fortunate to use,

- Lukas Capicchiano , Year 9 Outdoor Education Coordinator

Photo from GOCC