When we first contacted Mr. Chris French, headmaster at Whitsunday Anglican School, Queensland, Australia we were planning an article on international coalition members who were participating in CC! Week, 2007. What we didn’t expect to learn was that Whitsunday Anglican School began implementing CC! after a visit to a school in North Dakota. The strategies employed by Jim Hill Middle School in Minot, North Dakota inspired the staff and students to employ CC! in Australia.
We contacted Ms. Cindy Mau, principal of Jim Hill to tell us more. In a recent telephone interview, we learned that this special relationship was much more than a student exchange, and, thanks to CC!, an international service-learning network had been conceived.
When French and his group of 38 students first visited Jim Hill in North Dakota he tells us they “fell in love with what Mau and her team were doing with CC!” Mau explains Whitsunday Anglican School has students from affluent backgrounds and CC! offered an opportunity for them to begin giving back to their community and sharing their resources through the Six Pillars of Character. The decision to implement CC! has only enhanced their campus and they began looking outward for opportunities to spread the message of CC! in their local communities.
The results will be seen this year with a visit from 50 students from Whitsunday Anglican in September who will initiate an athletic service-learning program for the Native American students aged 6-8 in North Dakota during their visit. The links between Native American and Aboriginal culture will be extended when the Jim Hill students visit Whitsunday at a later date to participate in literacy programs for local Aborigine students with the help of a local Aborigine author.
This extension of the character-exchange is only one part of a mutually beneficial relationship. When Mau visited Jim Hill in 2006 she tells us they were treated to wonderful hospitality and a full program of events which highlighted the natural beauty of Australia, but “the most emotional moment was walking in to the school and seeing CC! everywhere.”
The impact of this sister-school relationship is now expanding further abroad. Mau’s passion is participating in mission trips to countries in need of resources after natural disasters and other areas of high levels of poverty. The students of Whitsunday Anglican sent soccer uniforms as a donation to orphanages in Mexico. Her own students were able to see the results of her work when she presented a slide show at a morning assembly illustrating just how little the orphans had.
One student, with whom Mau had previously been involved in her capacity as counselor, later approached her. On seeing the young 8th grader, memories of her past troubles came back to Mau and she was afraid the girl was again going through a troubled time. On the contrary. The youngster stepped in to Mau’s office and said “I only have $8 from my babysitting job, but please can you send it to those poor children, it would mean so much to me.” Despite her own misfortune, the little girl wanted to reach out to those less fortunate. Little wonder that the success of CC! in Jim Hill inspired Mr. French in Australia to implement CC!
French told us the term dates in Australia don’t coincide with the U.S., but near the CC! Week dates they will be celebrating with a CC! Assembly, featuring staff-student challenges and a “good Aussie BBQ to celebrate.”
