Auspire Australia Day Citizen of the Year Awards 2022

At the Australia Day Citizenship and Volunteer Awards ceremony held at Sir James Mitchell Park, the City of South Perth recognised some of the outstanding efforts in several volunteer categories including youth, adult, senior citizen and teams.

It was a thrill to see Kurtis Tanna and Jack Johnston receive their nominations for Youth of the Year.

Jack went on to receive Junior Citizen of the Year for 2021. In his citation, he was recognised for the many hours he has given to the Red Cross Soup Patrol, Aged Care, myFutures Castlereagh Special Needs, Bushcare and Environment and After-School Mentoring. He was the recipient of the John Beekink Award 2021 and has achieved Service Colours and Honours. Kurtis had already received Junior Volunteer of the Year for the City of South Perth in December 2021 for is work with Capes for Kids, Edmund Rice Camps and various other projects. Both of these young men are amazing role models and ambassadors for Aquinas College.

The Aquinas Outreach Program was also nominated for the Teams award. This program involves the monthly Cooking Roster for the Doorways Street Outreach as well as the Weekend Breakfast Patrol. Representing the program was Lisa Kennedy, Hans op den Dries and John Richards. The group was formed in early 2020 in response to a need to feed the homeless that wasn’t being met because of the impact of lockdowns and social distancing. Every weekend, food is prepared and served to an average of thirty people each morning. Every month, three cooks prepare a tray of food to feed clients on Friday-Sunday nights.

On Thursday 2 December, Kurtis Tanna was awarded the Young Volunteer of the Year by the City of South Perth. For many years, Kurtis has been active with Capes for Kids and has made over 50 capes. He is now collaborating with Santa Maria College which will take the production to a whole new level. But Kurtis does much more than this. He has also volunteered his time for Edmund Rice Camps for Kids, After-School Environment, Homework Club, Peer Support, Ocean Heroes, Leeuwin Volunteer Program and let's go Surfing

for the Disabled. His generosity of spirit and commitment is inspiring. Well done Kurtis!

This year’s Christmas Appeal remained focused on the needs of the poor and homeless who arrive at the various ‘Drop-In’ Centres in Perth as well as those who are sleeping rough. These Centres rely on donations of items to assist people with their personal needs as well as non-perishable food. This year our Junior School was extremely generous in providing a large variety of items that included food, toiletries, and toys.

With less short-term accommodation available due to the growing number of abandoned people, there is a need to look after those who suddenly find themselves with nothing. An increase in those with mental illnesses is also adding pressure to housing and emergency services.

All donations have now been collected by Vinnies allowing the season of Advent for distribution.

Thank you very much to families who got into the spirit of giving and generously supported the Christmas Appeal and to the Junior School Leaders who promoted and collected for this event. Thank you also to Mrs Bevan and Mrs Rive for assisting and monitoring the safe storage of items throughout the term.

Another group of Aquinas students are participating in a program providing a rare learning space for young people from different parts of the world to connect and get to know each other. This group of students are in discussions with peers from The Abbey School in Tipperary, Ireland. While this might seem a long way away, it is less than 100kms down the road from Waterford, where Edmund Rice opened the first Edmund Rice School in 1802 – in so doing he sparked a global movement to bring young people an education that liberates, delivered in the context of a formation for life that transforms their capacity to live life to the full.

We are blessed to have two groups of enthusiastic, open-minded young men who are excited to learn about Edmund Rice Education globally, develop their cross-cultural knowledge and communication skills. There are no set expectations about where these connections ‘beyond borders’ will lead us, instead, we are open to what may arise. Stay tuned for more updates in the future.

(The Global Classroom Partners Program is an initiative of Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders and coordinated through Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) and Edmund Rice England.)

Congratulations to the following boys on their results at the All Schools Athletics Competition.

Samuel Brennan

• Boys 1500 Metre Under 18 - 2nd place (4:03.48)
• Boys 800 Metre Under 18 - 2nd place (1:58.48)

Tom Brennan

• Boys 100 Metre Under 18 - 3rd place (11.20s)
• Boys 200 Metre Under 18 - 2nd place (22.22s)

Caleb Di Toro

• Boys 1500 Metre Under 16 - 7th place (4:15.16)
• Boys 3000 Metre Under 16 - 6th place (9:19.56)

Luca Di Toro

• Boys 1500 Metre Under 18 - 1st place (3:56.97)
• Boys 3000 Metre Under 18 - 1st place (8:53.45)

Ethan Dixon

• Boys 3000 Metre Under 16 - 5th place (9:15.68)

Tre Healy

• Boys Triple Jump Under 16 - 2nd place (12.48m)

Cooper Horsfall

• Boys 100 Metre Under 18 - 15th place (11.68s)
• Boys Long Jump Under 18 - 8th place (5.90m)
• Boys 200 Metre Under 18 - 8th place (22.91s)

Oscar Hymus

• Boys 100 Metre Under 18 - 9th place (11.47s)
• Boys 200 Metre Under 18 - 3rd place (22.63s)

Tom Millard

• Boys 3000 Metre Under 18 - 3rd place (9:00.67)
• Boys 2000m Steeplechase Under 18 - 1st place (6:30.98)

Oliver Perkins

• Boys 1500 Metre Under 14 - 9th place (1:07.10)

Tyler Skeggs

• Boys Shot Put Under 18 - 4th place (11.80m)

Ethan Wyatt Smith

• Boys 1500 Metre Under 20 - 2nd place (3:57.25)
• Boys 800 Metre Under 20 - 1st place (1:56.22)

A few years ago, inspired by the vision of connecting ‘Beyond Borders’ across the global Edmund Rice movement, our peers in Arusha, Tanzania invited Aquinas College to visit and get to know what the Edmund Rice vision looks like in a different context. During a wonderful few weeks there in January 2020, invisible barriers were dissolved, friendships were formed and hopes were raised for future connections. Obviously, the last 18 months have not been conducive to travel, and schools have often been closed for long periods – however, the sense of connection and desire to share stories has never faded.

Recently, Edmund Rice Secondary School Sinon has been in contact with us again, as part of the EREBB ‘Global Classroom partners’ program. On Tuesday 9^th November a small group of students from each school spent an hour connected via Zoom. As we navigated language and internet hurdles, there was the familiar warmth, openness and sense of unity.

While we don’t know where exactly these kinds of connections can lead us, it is not about a predetermined destination – rather it is about being open to a journey together, come what may. Each time we connect we stumble upon glimpses of cultural common ground and also some beautiful differences. We are united by our shared charism and the youthful exuberance that students bring to these kinds of encounters. As time goes by, we hope a rhythm between the groups can develop as they connect online. EREBB GCP will provide some structure and support along the way, the rest is up to the small groups of Edmund Rice students to remain open to whatever may emerge. These images show a glimpse of both our time together last year and this week’s Zoom discussion.

Last Friday the year 8 and 9 boys at Aquinas College took part in the Relay4Life event with Santa Maria. During this event, we were given the opportunity to dress up in a themed costume with our fellow classmates from our tutor group and walk laps around the oval to raise money for the cancer council. One of the best experiences was the dance challenge for the Year 9s, where we had limited time to come up with a routine with a corresponding Santa Maria House and perform it in front of everyone. Not only was this a great social but also served as a learning experience where we were informed about how the money we have raised will help support those with cancer.

Service is defined as work done by one person or group that benefits another. I feel as if we all show service in different aspects of our lives at Aquinas College. Helping a mate with math questions they haven’t wrapped their head around yet, thanking the teacher after getting a good mark on a test. We all perform service every day, it’s just in some cases the service is recognised more than others. Personally, my journey through service at Aquinas has ranged from helping my local football club, the Manning Rippers through boundary umpiring, scoreboard changer, etc. On seniors, reserves and colt’s level. I also participated in a few clean-up Australia days, helping around the Salter Point and Manning streets and parks, and finally cleaning the bush next to the Aquinas College main entry gate. Throughout Middle School, I am aware I could’ve done a bit more in terms of direct help to people. Aquinas College has helped me reach out and provide service to my community, without this opportunity there’s a large chance I wouldn’t have done anywhere near the amount of service I have done.

At first, I saw committing to doing three soup patrols would be a non-enjoyable task I had to do to graduate, a very negative mindset. Until I heard my mates that would come back from committing their soup patrols, with only positive stories. The leaders or ‘drivers’ were nothing short of amazing people with positive mindsets about teaching me and my friends whilst helping the homeless themselves. Something that is so easy and accessible to us private schoolboys, like fresh fruit, bread and warm soup, means so much more to those less advantaged and privileged than us. The people to who we served soup were all grateful for the time we spent out of our days to support them. I had multiple jobs I wanted to participate in during the soup patrol itself. I poured the soup into the cups, and I would put the lids on the cups. I am not the type of person to go out of my way to talk to strangers, so I enjoyed being the backstage type of role during my patrols.

The highlight of my soup patrols would be during my second patrol when we got to play music out of the van, playing rappers like Drake and Kanye West led to the people we were serving being happier and loving the music, giving us all topics to talk about, people wearing Kanye West t-shirts really enjoying the music. It allowed me to appreciate how alike I was, we all listen to the same music, live in the same city, just some of us are born into more advantaged lifestyles than others. Being posted on to the official Aquinas College Instagram serving the community was great as it showed how happy all four of us boys were to help the community, big smiles were not placed on us when the camera came out, they stayed there all night as we loved every part of it. Appreciating that this wasn’t a chore or something we must do to graduate is a massive part of fulfilling service learning at Aquinas College.

After completing my three soup patrols, I was finished with my service for Aquinas College, but I questioned myself with all these opportunities Aquinas has given me, I should give back. The Relay for Life social for year 8’s and 9’s from both Aquinas and Santa Maria practically called my name. I would say nine of every ten people participating in the event as a student leader were doing it for their prefect or captain service project. I wanted to participate in it because I thought I would enjoy it. Three to four hours before the event I emailed Head of Middle School, not asking if he needed any assistance but telling him I would love to help. Coming together with Santa Maria Leaders it felt great to help raise money for the Cancer Council Australia. Giving my support to the younger kids at both Santa Maria and Aquinas was enjoyable, I wanted to be the friendliest person I could be. Talking to them and starting conversations between the two schools’ students. Doing all of this whilst raising money for charity just seemed perfect to me. Seven hours felt like twenty minutes. Doing laps around the oval, playing volleyball, having dance competitions are all great fun activities that helped a group of people suffering from the worst disease ever.

Aquinas College has so many opportunities given to students, such as gardening, soup patrols, surfing with the disabled, etc. I attempted to help with as many as I could. I don’t feel like doing service only helps other people, but equally helps yourself. I enjoyed fulfilling my service duties, I would do a lot more if my focus wasn’t placed upon my ATAR in Year 12. It doesn’t stop now though; service doesn’t end after Mr Richards no longer ticks off your name. Aquinas College has taught us how to serve others, how we must act once we leave school. Following in the footsteps of those soup patrol drivers who take time out of their busy schedules to serve those less fortunate. Completing my service learning at Aquinas College from 2017 to 2022 has been nothing but an honour, I am grateful for Mr Richards and other staff who have given me the opportunities to serve my community.