Christian Service Learning

In this Year of Justice, we look to becoming more aware of the beauty and goodness in our world and seek to ensure everyone can experience it. Servite College has been very busy recently, engaging in a number of large Christian Service Learning programs.

Project Compassion

Every year we learn more about the work of Caritas and fundraise to support this work through Project Compassion. This year we raised some $1,883.65. A huge vote of thanks to those who advocated and donated to this worthy cause.

At the College Assembly held last week, the following top five contributing Homerooms and Project Compassion Ambassadors (PCA) were recognised:

OLS7   PCA  Jasmine Vo                   $207.40
SC7      PCA  Olivia Bradshaw            $129.40
SM7     PCA  Marco di Georgio          $97.90
OLS4   PCA  Paris Vivona                  $78.45
SA6      PCA  Lily Oates                      $75.20

We thank all those who selflessly gave to help our neighbours in need.

St Peregrine Week and Cancer Council Relay for Life

In the first week of this term, we celebrated St Peregrine Week. A Servite saint and the traditional patron saint of cancer sufferers, St Peregrine is now regarded as the patron saint of all who are suffering. Fr Leonard, Director of the Australian Peregrine Institute, celebrated our special St Peregrine Mass, blessing us and the Cancer Council Relay for Life tops that were presented to students.

On the weekend of 4-5 May, some 44 Year Ten and Eleven students braved the cold and participated in the Cancer Foundation’s Relay for Life at the Claremont Show grounds. It was a wonderful 24 hours of learning, walking, fundraising and having fun.

Most likely we have all know someone who has been affected by cancer. This event was a chance to:

• recognise and celebrate local cancer survivors, patients and their carers;
• honour and remember loved ones lost to cancer; and
• raise money to help save more lives.

There were three teams entered into the Relay, each led magnificently by a team captain: Servite Support Squad, captained by Chloe Lazaroo (OLS6); Servite Tutus, captained by Jovan Fidanovski (OLS7); and the Servite Legends, captained by Natasha Gbondo (OLS3).

We thank Mr Callus for organising and co-ordinating the event, Mr Peter Loreck and Ms Elysha Dalzell who helped Mr Callus supervise us all night, and all staff who visited us during the course of the weekend.

HBF Run for a Reason

As part of a Christian Service Learning Project, Caritas Ks, several students joined staff and classmates walking or running in the HBF Run For A Reason on Sunday. As a CSL Project, we fundraise for Caritas and walk in solidarity with many in the world who have to walk these distances daily either to get to work or school or to gather the family’s daily water. A huge vote of thanks to Mr Kris Hailes and Ms Robyn Brown for conducting the day. 

Salvation Army, Red Shield Appeal Door Knock  

It was a Christian Service Learning Project that many didn’t want to attempt. The concept to travel from door to door and communicate with strangers to advocate and raise money didn’t spark as great of an interest as I had imagined. Only nine of us seized the opportunity to try something we had never done.

The day began with a 9.00am Mass that helped to calm our nerves from our inexperience in the field of door knocking. The Mass concluded with a cheerful blessing from the Parish Priest, Fr Wilson, wishing us luck for the impact we were going to create in the neighbourhood. When we returned to the school grounds we were giving a short briefing summarising the goal for the day. Volunteering as Salvation Army representatives, our group was to split up and cooperate to navigate our way across the wide area of the suburb. Following the knock on the door, we stated the cause of our visit and asked for a donation. It was as simple as that and no person had any major issues with the day. We moved in pairs spreading like a flock of mighty sheep and by 3pm we had covered the whole allocated area, only to stop for a mid-day break for lunch. We were very grateful for Mr Gio Panai who came in to school and cooked the delicious barbecue lunch for us.

Fundamentally, the project had given us a memory that would be hard to forget and social skills that could be developed further in times to come. In my pair we raised $35 and another one we worked closely with had raised $34. This is a very successful value considering the amount of time put into the course of the day and the amount of homes that were delivered envelopes for missing their visit. Our pair probably only came across a maximum of 15 people over the door knock of over 40 homes, though it still made a difference in spreading the message. The money that has been raised over the day will go towards the Salvation Army organisation to prioritise on the less fortunate living without a proper home and income.

Sharing many laughs and stories of our journey, we found a house without a front door, met people from every corner and heard of incidents were others were chased by dogs or got the door slammed at them. Walking over 8km, at least we had a proper exercise motivated by the determination to draw people towards a greater purpose.

Michael Sosulski (OLS2)

On Sunday 26th of May, seven of my Year Ten fellow students and I met promptly at 9am at St Kieran church for a nice mass and to receive blessing for the upcoming action packed day. The students who conducted the Door Knock were: Matthew Armitage (SC1), Rishi Desai (SM6), Karl Gutierrez (SE2), Pitia Lado (SE5), Vanja Mileusnic (AN1), Vittorio Panaia (SE3), Dirgh Patel (SM4) and Michael Sosulski (OLS2). After Mass my friends and I diligently walked to school and met in the auditorium foyer, so that we could discuss what part of Tuart Hill we would walk through to encourage people to donate to the Red Shield Appeal.

We paired up into partners. My partner was Rishi and we were proudly given the role of door knocking in the sixth area of District Two. We moved quickly as we wanted to gain a head start in trying to raise as much money as possible. We started on Hector Street and made our way around Tyler Street. For the first 10 houses we didn’t have any luck in receiving donations.

Our first donation was a generous man who donated $5 . We were very thankful, we then promptly moved on to the next house. As the day went on, we accumulated more and more money, and some weird encounters. We knocked on the door of a man’s house, he answered and said “What!?”. We quickly replied with “Hi, how are you? We are from the Red Shield…” and he then slammed the door in our faces. I guess there are all sorts of people in our world.

At the end of the day of the day, we all met together tally up the money we had received from donations. In total it came out to be quite a bit. All the money that we had from donations could change a homeless person’s life. That’s the only goal that we had set in mind at the start of the day and we hope to achieve that goal for some people experiencing homelessness out there.

The Red Shield Door Knock Appeal was a great experience and we really look forward to trying it again next year.

We thank Ms Lee and Ms Payne who supported and walked with us and to Mr Callus for organising and coordinating the day.

Vitto Panaia (SE3)

The Archbishop’s LifeLink Forum

On Tuesday the 28th of May, nine students from our College had the privilege of representing Servite at Aranmore College along with representatives from 30 other Catholic Secondary Schools from Perth, for The Archbishop’s LifeLink Forum. These students were the Year 8 to 10 Service Councillors and Year 10 students serving on the Interschool LifeLink Committee. The students were Anika Desai (Year 10 Councillor and Life-Link Committee member), Cecilia George (Year 10 Councillor), Kristian Triscari (Life-Link Committee member), Chloe Lazaroo (Life-Link Committee member), Brandon Scriva (Life-Link Committee member), and Year 9 Service Councillors Phoebe Harry and Shelby Hardstaff, Year 8 Service Councillors Anthony D’Accampo and Armani Kelly.

As we started off the day, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, Bishop Donald Sproxton and Dr Debra Sayce, Executive Director of CEWA gave us engaging and informative opening speeches.

Out of all of the speeches, the one that stuck with me the most was the Archbishop’s speech. He talked about bringing the youth of the Catholic Church together, what having faith means, and gave us an interesting insight into LifeLink and all of the good the organisation does.

A memorable part of his speech is where he quoted Saint Mary MacKillop, “Never see a need without doing something about it”. He then went on to relate this quote to what LifeLink is about, it’s a nonprofit organisation that promotes the understanding of the Church’s response to people and their needs. LifeLink financially supports agencies such as ShopFront and Emmaus, both inspiring organisations that help everyone they can. He also went on to say that you shouldn’t be ashamed of your faith, because the next Saint Mary MacKillop could be in this room. This personally warmed my heart and made me happy to be in a room filled with people that weren’t ashamed of their faith and that were willing to openly discuss it. As the day carried on, we got to share our thoughts on important local issues and converse with students from other schools about these topics.

After a delicious morning tea all the schools workshopped ideas for creating a new and engaging LifeLink promotional video at their tables. Our Year 10 students moved from table to table to encourage and assist other students with this task.

To finish off the day, Archbishop Costelloe, Bishop Spoxton and Dr Sayce answered any questions the students had about the Catholic Church. With their answers we got to know more about these leaders and their experiences and advice they had for us. At one point, the Archbishop shared a personal story that reminded me that he is human too and he has the same experiences that we do.

Overall, the day was educational and an exciting experience. By the end I felt like I was a part of something special and I am sure everyone else thought the same.

Phoebe Harry (OLS4)

Coming up this term

Week 8 Ration Challenge – Held during Refugee Week. Staff, students and parents live off the rations given to refugees for five days in order to raise awareness of and donations for refugees.

Week 9 Operation XLR8 – Students participate in an army-style assault obstacle course to raise awareness and donations for Catholic Mission.

Mr Chris Callus
Assistant Deputy Principal – Christian Service Learning