THE floodwaters may have come and gone but the Catholic school community in Brisbane hasn’t forgotten that some of their family still need ongoing help and support.
A call went out prior to the start of the school year for those schools unaffected by the disaster to choose a twin or sister school that had suffered and support them both financially and spiritually.
Brisbane Catholic Education executive director David Hutton said the first few weeks of this year would take some time to fade in our memories.
“We were fortunate that few Brisbane Catholic Education schools suffered any flooding or damage, but many hundreds of our families and staff experienced the devastation of the recent floods first hand,” he said.
He said each of the severely-impacted school communities had been “twinned” with several other schools for financial and practical support.
“It has been fantastic to see the way in which so many of our school communities have generously banded together to provide assistance to families from other schools who are in need,” he said.
“Whether this be in the form of books and classroom resources, or from fundraising collections, it is a wonderful example of practical Christianity in action in our schools.”
Sausage sizzles, free-dress days, baking days and “Rivers of Gold” are just some of the creative efforts students have undertaken to help their twin schools who will have long haul ahead of them to recover.
St Francis Xavier Primary School, Runaway Bay, has chosen to support families from the school community of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Darra, and to date has raised more than $1500.
The Gold Coast school wants to raise $4950 to help several of the Darra school’s families whose houses were inundated or who were rendered unemployed by the floods.
Money raised to date has come from a car wash and general donations with an online auction already underway expected to add to the total.
At Padua College, Kedron, the 250 Year 5-7 boys chose a sausage sizzle as their fundraiser and ate their way to a grand total of $835.80 that was then presented to the assistant principal for religious education of Our Lady of Good Counsel School, Gatton.
The Gatton parish includes a number of affected towns in the Lockyer Valley and the Padua donation will go to the Care and Concern Committee of the Parents’ and Friends’ association at the Gatton school.
The wider community also supported the fundraising venture with donations of sausages, ice, bread and tomato sauce.
Students at Our Lady Help of Christians, Hendra, also chose sausage sizzles as their way of supporting St Mary’s primary school, Laidley, and, after holding two, have raised $500 to send to the school.
St Mary’s primary school, Maryborough, has used a free-dress day to kick off its support for “twin” school – Holy Family Catholic Primary School, Indooroopilly.
The “Dress Down Day” raised $474 for the Brisbane school with a further free-dress day planned for later in the term.
At Lourdes Hill College, Hawthorne, despite minor flooding to their own campus, the service and spirituality leaders were committed to helping Milpera State High School at Chelmer that had suffered extensive damage in January.
The leaders said Milpera was a special high school that welcomed migrant and refugee young people from all over the world.
“Many of the young people who attend Milpera have been victims of trauma and torture; some have lost family members who have been killed in the conflict-ridden, war-torn circumstances in the troubled countries they come from,” they said.
“On Lourdes Day, before our Mass, we viewed some photographs which captured the loss the Milpera community encountered.
“We felt that, as a community who remained almost unscathed, we should reach out to this one that wasn’t so lucky.
“On Valentine’s Day, the Service and Spirituality leaders sold red heart lollipops for 50 cents to raise funds for Milpera.”
The $650 raised from the day follows an earlier donation of art kits to help with art therapy and self-expression for the students of Milpera.
Lourdes Hill assistant principal for faith and mission Julie Allen said that, since the start of the year, the college had also donated $1000 to Toowoomba Catholic Education office to help people in Grantham and the Lockyer Valley, $700 to the St Vincent de Paul Society Flood Appeal and $1000 to two members of its own community personally affected by the floods.
In Grovely, St William’s students held a “River of gold coins” Day on March 1.
The funds, along with $400 raised by staff at a morning tea held earlier in the year, will be sent to the St Vincent de Paul Society Flood Appeal.
Meanwhile one of the many Brigidine College students who suffered in the flood has told fellow students it was a relief to return to the routine of school.
Year 12 student Kristin Parker said the floods were a memory she and her friends were unlikely to forget.
“I live in Chelmer, in a street where you usually have to walk to the river but the river came to us this year,” she said. “Along with the mud – lots of it.”
She said the devastation however also brought generosity.
“Even before the waters had reached our doorstep, friends arrived, busily moving as many of our possessions as possible to higher ground,” Kristin said.
“Then (they offered) to move us to higher ground, giving us a place to stay in their homes.”
Kristin said when the Parker family members returned to their flooded house and ruined possessions with despair in their hearts, hope arrived in the form of family, friends and Brigidine girls.
“Everyone got to work with brooms, (pressure cleaners) and buckets; never once complaining about the stench, the heat or the mud.
“The fact that so many Brigidine girls were willing to give up their precious summer holidays to perform tedious, tiring work made me truly proud to be a Brigidine student,” Kristin, a Brigidine house captain, said. “The floods were destined to produce tears but my friends had the family all laughing and smiling again.
When I returned to school, it was a relief to talk to some other girls who had lost their homes to the floods and listen to their stories, because a problem shared is a problem halved.
“The Brigidine College theme in 2011 is Hope and Heart. It’s very apt as we have had a challenging start to the year. Hopefully though as leaders of the college, we can give hope and heart to others through our experiences.”
