TWENTY-FOUR-year-old Pat Webster is bowling students over with his unique documentary, Happiness Is a Mindset, which records a journey he made through Bangladesh last year.
Intended to become a teaching resource in Catholic schools, the documentary shows Pat delivering second-hand cricket kits to schools throughout the third world country, and the joy this brought to hundreds of Bangladeshi children.
And, when more than 150 people attended the documentary’s recent launch at Marist College Ashgrove – where Pat previously taught and was educated – they were moved by it.
Marist student Shaun Burrell was just one of many who felt they’d been knocked for a six.
“It was probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
“It made me feel a whole lot different about myself and about the people in Bangladesh, I thought they were just poor and dismal, but they were truly real and happy.”
For Pat, the love for life he witnessed in the country despite such poor living conditions, was “inspiring”.
He recalled taking one lot of gifts to a disabled school, which he described as his most profound moment.
“I saw some of the happiest people I’d ever met there, and yet they had nothing,” he said.
“The old equipment was no good to us because we only want the best here, but they didn’t care.”
Though Pat admits the documentary may not be life changing for every student who sees it, his goal is to have it viewed in as many schools as possible.
He said it contained important messages, which were relevant for today’s youth.
“In a Western country like Australia we get so caught up in seeking material gain, but I hope this will at least give people a different perspective.”
Pat also acknowledged the great deal of Catholic influence, which had contributed to the documentary’s success so far.
Catholic schools across southeast Queensland, including Marist College, Padua College, Villanova College, and St Joseph’s College at Gregory Terrace, had donated the cricket gear.
And, the Australian Catholic University – where he graduated as a teacher in April – covered the cost of flying the kits to Bangladesh, with some help from Pat’s local parish in Kilcoy.
Pat is practicing what he preaches too – all proceeds from Happiness Is a Mindset will go to skin cancer foundation, Melanoma Patients Australia.
He is also planning a second trip to the third world next year, where he intends to work at a Cambodian school for land mine victims run by Marist Brothers.
