Stories from Cynthia

B y C yn th ia L ind say

In wri ng about modern day schools in this paper recently, I made men on of a me when I volunteered in a programme at our Dunolly Primary School.

This programme was known as Special Friends and we volunteers, were each allo ed a student with whom to spend extra me out of the classroom, in order to help them feel comfortable with their peers and encourage their self-confidence.

My very first protégé, as I named them, was a fourth grade indigenous boy who was rather quiet and economical with words

For some weeks, I could only manage to get him to talk by bringing up subjects that I thought might interest him

Then one day, a er quite a few visits, when I arrived, he came in and announced with a big smile, “Guess what, I am ge ng my bedroom painted.” That was quite a breakthrough.

His mother lived interstate and he had lived here since he was a toddler with his dad. He loved cooking, so we would whip up biscuits or li le cakes.

At the end of the session he would take them into his classroom and would tell the class how they were made, and then everyone would clamour for one and he would hand them round That certainly was good for his ego.

He loved sport and was such a good footballer that some mes when he was in Grades 5 and 6, he played with the under 17s.

This small, wiry boy would swerve in between the bigger players, get the ball and kick a goal. His aim was to one day play in the AFL.

He also coerced me into playing golf and he decided he would be ‘Happy Gilmour’,so we set up a ‘hole’ between the goal posts and of course he always ran rings around me.

I visited this young man un l he went to high school and some mes, he would drop round to my house with a mate and offer to do odd jobs

I would give them pocket money to barrow the firewood up to the house or sweep the shed. When he visited, he was always carrying a football. I used to go to the school concerts with his dad to cheer him on; his dad referred to me as his ‘other mother’ and I was very chuffed.

A er he le school, he got himself an appren ceship and s ll played footy but unfortunately an injury and the demands of his job put paid to his football career He came one day to introduce me to his lovely girlfriend

I call him one of my success stories Cynthia