6 minute read
Becoming a Shrine Young Ambassador
BY BENJAMIN BEZZINA
Every year, the Shrine appoints a team of Young Ambassadors who participate in programs and commemorative services. Benjamin Bezzina reflects on his experiences in the 2024 cohort.
Prior to October 2023, I had never so much as stepped foot within the Shrine of Remembrance. I, of course, knew of its existence and that it was an important place. My mum had said many times that she would take me there one day, but it was one of those things that we just kept putting off until we reached the point where it felt like it was just never going to happen.
I never had a personal connection to remembrance; my family had come from Malta in the late 1940s and I had no relatives who had served in the First World War or the Second World War. My grandfather had tried to enlist at the height of the Vietnam War, feeling a compulsion to serve the country that had taken him in after Malta was destroyed by German and Italian bombers during the Second World War. However, he was turned away for medical reasons—he was flat-footed.
I had been to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra twice— once with Cadets and once alone on Vietnam Veterans Day (purely coincidental that our trip in Canberra coincided with 18 August)—and had felt the magnitude and solace of the memorial overwhelm me. The feeling one gets when the Last Post echoes through the Honour Roll is hard to describe. You turn and see the rows after rows of poppies and names, and it feels so unreal to think that every single one of those names on that board was a brother, a son, a father, a friend, a husband or any other person that loved, or was loved, as Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae put it in his poem In Flanders Fields.
This all changed in October 2023, when during a routine school assembly on a dull Tuesday first period the prospect of the Shrine Young Ambassadorship was brought up by my school’s Assistant Head of Senior School. During any given assembly at 9am on a weekday, I was half asleep in my chair semiconsciously tuning in and out of the monotonous information that seemed to go on for much longer than could possibly be necessary. However, as I heard about the program, I seemed to snap out of my routine trance and suddenly lock in on the speech, taking great interest in it.
Later that day, in the middle of a slow history class, I began to write up my application for the Shrine Ambassadorship. My history teacher caught me at it and asked what I was doing. I somewhat nervously responded, explaining that I was applying for the ambassadorship mentioned in the assembly. To my delight, he was very positive and encouraging about it, telling me to absolutely go for it. This felt like all the reassurance I needed, and I finished writing up a small blurb about who I was and why I wanted to join. I nervously submitted my application and proceeded to forget about it.
Eventually, against my expectations, joining a group of nine other Young Ambassadors at the Shrine for the first time during the school holidays. Since then, I have been able to do so many wonderful and amazing things that would have never been possible without the help of the Shrine. I read the poem We Shall Keep the Faith by Moina Michael during the Young Ambassador handover ceremony. I assisted in school holiday activities for young kids, laid wreaths on Sunday’s Last Post ceremonies and Legacy Day, and I assisted visitors on Anzac Day.
The first time I visited the Shrine it was a nice summer day and I was going to an induction and welcome ceremony—a nerve-wracking experience that I didn’t feel 100 per cent prepared for. I remember what it felt like to walk up the path approaching the right side of the building near the Education Centre. I remember the text on one of the walls, the very first thing I saw of the Shrine:
THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY A GRATEFUL PEOPLE TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF VICTORIA WHO SERVED THE EMPIRE IN THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918.
It was a quote that resonated with me and profoundly and positively impacted my feelings going into this ambassadorship.
Today, more than 100 years on from the First World War, it’s often easy to forget just how important this war was to the creation of the Australian identity, forged by the ANZACs at what became known as Anzac Cove, at Gallipoli. Loyalty, mateship, humour, courage and determination are all now key aspects of what makes us Australian today. It is institutions such as the Shrine that help pass on the torch of remembrance to the younger generations, ensuring that we as a nation and society never forget the brave young men who embarked ships leaving Australia in 1914, as well as all who have served in subsequent wars such as the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as peacekeeping operations across the world.
I am forever grateful for the opportunity I had to be part of the Shrine Young Ambassador program. I have met people who I would otherwise never have come across, and I have had the opportunity to build experiences that have stuck with me and that I would never have had the chance to enjoy otherwise. I have been involved in programs and activities that helped me learn to be a leader and I have learnt, expanded and grown my knowledge and felt more thankful than ever for the sacrifices made by servicemen and women.
The Young Ambassador Program is supported by the Freemasons Foundation Victoria.
Ben Bezzina is a Year 10 student from New Gisborne, Victoria, who has been volunteering as a Shrine Young Ambassador since October 2023.
