May 3, 2013
Year 12 students from St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy recently took part in a voluntary Street Retreat in which they spent two days working and learning about the struggles faced by some of the most poor and marginalised within the Australian community.
The students joined the Claver Cares Street Van which has been serving a barbecue dinner to street people every Monday night for the past five years.
The St Mary’s students helped to prepare and cook the barbecue and mingled with the street people to hear their stories.
“I learnt to appreciate what I have now and that you should always share with people who need it more,” Danish exchange student Emma Magnussen said.
On the second day, the students went to the Salvation Army’s Moonyah Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre and listened to stories from recovering drug, alcohol and gambling addicts.
The students were surprised that the recovering addicts were very normal people from good families who had just made poor choices.
“I wasn’t expecting to be overwhelmed by the genuine nature of the people that we met. I learnt that a lot of people are less fortunate for many reasons that are not their fault,” College Captain Matthew Guteridge said.
The final activity of the Street Retreat was to visit the Ozcare Homeless Men’s Shelter in South Brisbane. The students were taken through the centre to look at the accommodation and rehabilitation programs.
St Mary’s principal Mr Michael Nayler said he believed the Street Retreat was a life-changing experience for many students.
Back in 1981 Mr Nayler was taken on a Street Retreat by former Kingaroy parish priest Fr Kevin Ryan and this had been influential in Mr Nayler’s decision to pursue a career with Catholic Education and to run Street Retreats for students himself over the past 17 years.
