My Big Day Out
I spent an interesting day today down at the Wallington Adventure Park. I was there as part of the Workplace Big Day Out, which is a joint venture organised by BAC-Links in Geelong and the Waringal organisation.
The day involves about 150 volunteers from Geelong businesses such as Alcoa, PATHCare, Bendigo Bank, Mercure Hotel and of course Black Dog, spending the day with the more mobile clients of Waringal and St Laurence. Lots of Downs and Special Needs people mixing in with the normally office and factory-bound people. I spent the day floating between the various organised teams, helping out where I could. It was fun, but the most interesting part was spending time with the people who had volunteer their time EVERYDAY, not just once or twice a year. I spoke to people who have suffered in their personal lives, but still find the way and time to help those even less fortunate. I think they are true winners on these types of days. For example, the guy giving the soccer lesson is a solo dad, suffering bi-polar, having split from his wife two years ago after being in a marriage where his wife was also a bi-polar. He was helping today because he felt connected with this group of people.
The lady who took the Tai Chi classes has a 35 yo daughter who also suffers bi-polar, and she told me of how she and her ex-husband had to go to Adelaide recently to rescue their daughter from a group of people who had encouraged the daughter to go off medication, because they thought God could cure her (sounds cultish and scary eh?) She has given these classes because it was Tai Chi that has helped her get through the years of tears while raising her bi-polar daughter and she needed to share that gift.
There are heroes in this world, we just don't always see them, and they don't always have a chance to tell their story.
I hope that My sister Kate would be proud of my helping out as well :)
The day involves about 150 volunteers from Geelong businesses such as Alcoa, PATHCare, Bendigo Bank, Mercure Hotel and of course Black Dog, spending the day with the more mobile clients of Waringal and St Laurence. Lots of Downs and Special Needs people mixing in with the normally office and factory-bound people. I spent the day floating between the various organised teams, helping out where I could. It was fun, but the most interesting part was spending time with the people who had volunteer their time EVERYDAY, not just once or twice a year. I spoke to people who have suffered in their personal lives, but still find the way and time to help those even less fortunate. I think they are true winners on these types of days. For example, the guy giving the soccer lesson is a solo dad, suffering bi-polar, having split from his wife two years ago after being in a marriage where his wife was also a bi-polar. He was helping today because he felt connected with this group of people.
The lady who took the Tai Chi classes has a 35 yo daughter who also suffers bi-polar, and she told me of how she and her ex-husband had to go to Adelaide recently to rescue their daughter from a group of people who had encouraged the daughter to go off medication, because they thought God could cure her (sounds cultish and scary eh?) She has given these classes because it was Tai Chi that has helped her get through the years of tears while raising her bi-polar daughter and she needed to share that gift.
There are heroes in this world, we just don't always see them, and they don't always have a chance to tell their story.
I hope that My sister Kate would be proud of my helping out as well :)
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