SOCIAL JUSTICE PROGRAMMES 2009 In 2009, we will once again we will be running both the junior and senior compulsory Social Justice Programmes – all students at the College will be involved in serving our school and local communities in some meaningful way. I encourage all students to become involved in these programs and make a real effort to reach out to others. This year the programme for junior students is being conducted through their Religious Education classes. Each junior student should have received a log book in their Religion classes, and discussed options with their teacher for appropriate social justice activities to fulfil the programme requirements. LENTEN APPEAL 2009 Lent is often described as a time to reflect on the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and a time of honouring this sacrifice by giving of ourselves to those less fortunate. Each year, St Dominic's has a charitable appeal during Lent, and we have a proud history of giving to important and worthwhile causes that help the needy in some way. This year we are directing our Lenten fundraising towards St. Gabriel's School, Castle Hill and St. Edmund's School, Wahroonga. Both of these schools are special schools operated by the Edmund Rice network. Due to a lot of their work being done with pre-school aged children, these schools do not receive the same government funding as other Edmund Rice schools and rely heavily on public donations to offer their variety of programs. St. Gabriel's offers services to children with hearing impairments, while St. Edmund's School offers programs to assist those with vision and other impairments. We are also directing a portion of our fundraising to Caritas Australia in 2009. Caritas is a Catholic organization that provides education and support for people in many parts of the developing world. Caritas Australia's Project Compassion 2009 program is called 'Environment to Grow In' and will focus on providing services and operating programs to encourage and foster more environmentally sustainable agricultural and industrial activities in parts of the developing world. The final figure for the Lenten Appeal was just over $3,600. Given the times and the fact that this was gathered by simple donations from students each morning, we probably have to be happy with the effort even if it was a little short of our target. Photographs from the schools that we supported in 2007, may be found on the Lenten Gallery Below is a letter from Br John to our St Dominic's Community: Dear staff and students of St Dom's, The schools here are in desperate need. The classrooms, libraries, science labs and toilets are old and dilapidated, the white ants are having a great time. One principal allows only the Year 7and 8's upstairs because she is worried about the ceiling collapsing. The libraries are very inadequately supplied with very old books and the science labs have practically no equipment. Only two schools have around 15 computers and they have 800 students. Most schools have around 450 students and have 2 to 5 computers. When students leave 4th year to go to higher studies they fail to get accepted because of their poor computer skills, so they go back to the mountains to cut cane. We have decided that despite the poor conditions of the schools, we think it best for the students if we can get them more computers. Here they would be around $500 each. Not the top of the line of course, but good for learning basic computer skills. So if your generous Dom's boys can dig into their pockets, you will make a lot of students here happy. We eventually would like each school to have at least 25 computers so as a class of 50 can have one between two and they would be able to have a computer class each day. It's a big task but we are hoping some other schools will follow Dom's good example and help out. Thank you all so much! Best Wishes for the new school year!! Regards Br John (Who will never forget St Dom's) Will Pollock Social Justice Co-ordinator CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY Clean Up Australia Day was held on the 2nd of March 2008, for students in Years 11 and 12, to help clean up part of our local area (Parker St and Kanagra Reserves). Photographs from this day, may be found on the Social Justice Gallery 1 SALVATION ARMY RED SHIELD APPEAL The annual door knock for the Salvo's. Senior students and staff volunteered to collect donations in our local area. The dates for this appeal were: Saturday 27th May and Sunday 28th May CANNED FOOD DRIVE The SRC organised a canned food drive for four organisations in the Penrith area. Students brought in canned food items including Tuna, Baked Beans, Spaghetti, Vegetables, Soup, Fruit or Rice and Pasta, to help those who are in need during winter. WINTER SLEEPOUT The Winter Sleep-Out was held on Wednesday night the 2nd of July with 70 senior boys and 7 staff members slept under cardboard boxes and the stars in the College Quadrangle. The aims of this event are to raise awareness in students about the difficulties encountered by those in our community who are homeless during the cold winter nights and to raise money for Penrith Community Kitchen - a local organisation which serves about 900 meals a week to needy people in the Penrith area. The night involved various activities including building a shelter out of cardboard boxes and a soup and bread dinner served through the school canteen. All participants survived the cold night and rose at 6 am to ready themselves for the day. A Special Report by Matthew Dumars and Stephen Bourke (Year 12): The Winter Sleep Out was held on Wednesday night the 2nd of July, in the last week of Term 2. There were 70 senior students and 7 teachers who took on the challenge. The night started at around 7 o’clock, when we started to build our shelters out of cardboard boxes. Dinner was served by Ms. Yates and Br. Regan which was a variety of soups and bread to simulate a soup kitchen type meal. The night was filled with lots of excitement with Ben Avery shaving his head to raise some extra funds for Penrith Soup Kitchen and some of us enjoying listening to the State of Origin in the Tech Rooms. Later in the night, competition for the best shelter was hot, with many participants "re-arranging" others shelters all in the name of fun. After midnight the temperature plunged to single digits and reached a low of 3° Celsius in the early hours of the morning. Overall the experience was an eye opener to the difficulties faced by those who are homeless and have to live each and every night on the street. We strongly encourage next year’s senior students to strongly think about involving themselves in this event because it is for a great cause and a great night to be had for all. The tally so far for money raised on the night is just over $2000 and will be finalised in the coming weeks. We hope these funds are helpful to Penrith Community Kitchen which provides free meals for people in need in our local area. Photographs from this day may be found on the Winter Sleepout Gallery BLOOD BANK The Red Cross mobile blood bank visited St Dominic's once again on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th August. Boys in Years 10, 11 and 12 and staff supported the appeal for blood donations. As a community we again made around 100 donations. We should be proud of our efforts in helping to save lives by ensuring blood is available for those who need it. The blood bank has now visited St Dominic's three times during 2009. Their final visit for this year will be on the 16-17th November. Photographs from our previous Blood Bank days may be found on the Gallery 1 Gallery 2 and Gallery 3 pages. FORTY HOUR FAMINE On Friday night the 17th of August, 120 students from St Dominic's gave up something of importance to them (like food, technology or even the use of furniture!) for 40 hours for the World Vision 40 hr Famine. This years Famine focused on the problem of food shortages in Laos - one of the least developed countries in the world. Congratulations to all students who participated in this years 40 hr Famine. THE ST. VINCENT DE PAUL NIGHT PATROL VAN This project will continue throughout 2008. In the past many of our senior students have gone out three or four times during the year and positions on the van are booked out three months in advance. We field a team for the van twice a month. THE SENIOR CALL TO ACTION PROGRAMME Under this programme, students complete 5 community outreach activities and 5 school service activities through Years 11 and 12. There is also a personal reflection component to be completed for each of the community outreach activities they do. This is a compulsory part of senior schooling at St. Dominic's and if it is not completed, students do not get a reference from the college at the end of Year 12. Our aim is to have students participating in a programme that teaches them the value of helping others and the difficulties that many people face in our local community. LET'S TALK LOCAL This is a programme run by the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice. A select number of students from the Sydney Arch-diocese and Parramatta Diocese spend a week with Aboriginal communities in North-west NSW. It provides these students with a close-up view of Aboriginal life and culture while showing them first hand the affects of the discrimination they have and still experience. It was conducted over a seven-day time frame during the July school holidays in which many activities and events took place at various locations. ST VINCENT DE PAUL CHRISTMAS APPEAL We are once again conducting a Christmas hamper drive in support of the St. Vincent de Paul Society Christmas Appeal. These hampers provide support for many within our local area for whom Christmas is a time of financial trial and stress. Each homeroom in the College is compiling a hamper for a needy family. Some examples of goods that are needed for the hampers are long life foods such as coffee, tea, chips, lollies & tinned ham and also ”Christmassy” items such as decorations, bon-bons and long life Christmas cake / pudding. New gifts for children are also much appreciated. They can be wrapped and labelled, for example - "for a 10 year old boy / girl".