Our Champagnat Week Celebrations

On Friday the 8th of June we came together to celebrate the end of our Champagnat Week. This week commemorates the feast day of St Marcellin Champagnat.

The week was aligned with five different aspects of our Marist charism. On the Monday morning, the College gathered in prayer to recognise the beginning of Champagnat week. Following on from this, Tuesday was aligned to the Marist value of presence. This was linked to our presence in the community. We asked all students to come to school in blue and stand in solidarity with our Marist family in Syria who work with those who are affected by the ongoing conflict there.

The response to the request for donations to help refugees in our community was outstanding. We delivered over 200 bags of groceries and toiletries to the Jesuit Refugee Service in Parramatta.

Friday was the culmination of the week’s events. The Champagnat Week festival! Eleven different rides and attractions were available for the students (and staff) to enjoy, in an informal atmosphere. Students also had the opportunity to purchase snow cones, popcorn and fairy floss on the day. From this the school raised $3188.20 to send to Marist Solidarity who complete works throughout Asia. The afternoon marked the launch of our 2018 Walkathon with the theme, “A walkathon down memory lane”. Our imaginations were kicked off by memories of High School Musial, Mario Cart, Harry Potter, Rapunzel, Superheros. The money from our walkathon is shared between our sister school in Trichy and the College.

Hope has been evident this week, coming together and celebrating as a community on many occasions supporting the Jesuit Refugee Service with Marian blue Mufti on Tuesday, Champagnat Day Mass on Wednesday and culminating today in festival style celebrations.

A special thank you goes out to all of our students for their respectful behaviour throughout the week, and to the staff who helped in organising these events.