Students reach out to bushfire victims

Updated November 7 2012 - 2:21am, first published May 10 2009 - 10:50am
EMPATHY: St Liborius students Jacob Dullard and Dylan Gaffee, front, were off to Middle Kinglake Primary while, back, Hallee Murphy, Liam Clarke, Chloe Allen, Kaylee Finch, Katrina Mettoglu, Jordan Balnaves, Sam Carter and Darcy Conder helped to prepare the gifts.
EMPATHY: St Liborius students Jacob Dullard and Dylan Gaffee, front, were off to Middle Kinglake Primary while, back, Hallee Murphy, Liam Clarke, Chloe Allen, Kaylee Finch, Katrina Mettoglu, Jordan Balnaves, Sam Carter and Darcy Conder helped to prepare the gifts.

THE children at St Liborius Primary School may be little in size, but they’re definitely not little at heart.After hearing that students at Middle Kinglake Primary School had lost their school, their homes and their friends in the Black Saturday bushfires, they decided they wanted to do something to help.“We were in a situation where we had children attending our school who have cousins at Middle Kinglake Primary School,” teacher Liz Howard said.The students at St Liborius made cards and wrote letters to each of the students at Middle Kinglake Primary.They also decided to give each student a key tag with their name on it.“It’s something they’ve been working on for quite a while now,” Mrs Howard said.“They wanted to take that personal approach. They want the students in Kinglake to know that we are thinking of them.”Mrs Howard said some of the students were able to share their own experiences and stories from the night of the fires.“We were very lucky that none of the children lost their homes, but many of them were evacuated so it was very close to home. “The kids realise they are very lucky to still have their school and their friends and their homes to go back to, so it was that extra compassion that came from knowing that it was close to us, but we survived.“It’s stunning to see the empathy that they’re able to show and the maturity in being able to share their thoughts, ask relevant questions and just offer that hand of support, but as a friendship gesture rather than a donated gesture.”Grade 6 student Dylan Gaffee helped organise the gifts as his cousins attend Middle Kinglake Primary and had to be evacuated when the fires hit. “It feels good to be able to help,” Dylan, 12, said.Dylan, his parents Craig and Sandy, and his friend Jacob Dullard presented the gifts to the students and teachers at Middle Kinglake Primary School on Friday

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Bendigo news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.