DROMANA (Vic., Australia) --
On
Wednesday the 30th of November, a group of 60 young leaders
from the
Don Bosco Camp in Dromana, Victoria, were issued a
challenge: to take
over a local primary school (Our Lady of Fatima in Rosebud)
and run
games for the children for the afternoon. An excited and
somewhat
disbelieving murmur ran through the crowd as this news was
broken. The
group was then split into smaller teams of 4-5 and assigned
a class; it
was time to put what they had learned so far into action and
plan the
afternoon's activities.
Shortly before lunch, brand new leader shirts were issued to
all, for
those that had been campers in the past and were now on
their first
leadership camp this was in itself a special moment. For
them, the
shirts had come to symbolize the pure joy and fun that they
had
experienced on camp; now it was their turn to wear the
revered T-shirt
and spread that same joy to others.
As the second bus arrived at the primary school, the weather
looked
quite ominous; big, dark, heavy clouds filled the sky.
However, as the
leaders found their assigned classrooms the whole school
immediately
lit up as children roared in approval; not only were classes
done for
the day, they were going to be playing games! For about half
an hour
the small teams mingled with their 25-or-so students, played
games,
taught chants and built up the trust, before then merging
with the
class next to them.
With a group of children now double the size the challenge
had also
doubled, yet all the leaders quickly proved that they were
more than
equal to the occasion. After another 15 minutes of fun the
groups got
even bigger; now leaders were running games for entire age
groups;
junior, middle and senior schools, groups were easily over a
hundred
kids! As the heavens opened and rain fell, the entire school
hurried
into the hall. Excited conversations broke out, friends were
hurriedly
telling each other all about the games they had played, the
wonderful
leaders they had met.
For the grand finale, the entire school joined together in
chanting the
"Banana Song" and it almost lifted the roof! The energy in
the room was
phenomenal; over 350 young people were chanting a chant they
had learnt
not even an hour ago, yelling at the top of their voices,
doing the
actions with gusto. Sadly, the day had come to an end, as
the children
grabbed their bags and the leaders gathered in the courtyard
(the sun
now shining brightly). Parents arrived to pick up their
children and
were amazed as many refused to come, preferring to talk to
the leaders
one last time, for as long as possible – everyone left the
school with
a big smile on their faces: leaders, parents, staff and most
importantly, students.
The day was a complete, total triumph – a real testament to
the quality
of every single person on the leadership camp and the
wonderful job the
core team had done in not only preparing the day, but those
that took
part. Many of the younger, less-experienced leaders were
assigned roles
such as year level coordinator or team leader to challenge
them to take
the next step in their leadership role; every single one was
a
resounding success.
Speaking about the day, Principal Mrs Monica Coyle said
"Congratulations on a highly successful afternoon. The
leaders are a
credit to your team and the training they receive. They had
the
children - even the 'too cool' ones fully engaged and into
all they
presented. Well done on the wonderful tone and enthusiasm.
It really
was contagious, our students had a ball!"
On that note, a big thank-you to all the staff at Our Lady
of Fatima is
necessary as well; the experience and confidence that the
day gave to
all the leaders who participated (particularly the newer
ones) truly is
invaluable and couldn't be gained anywhere else.
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