IMAGE: Que President Kath Whitchurch passes on Thuringowa’s generous donation to Forbes Public School’s Vice
Captain Milly Ridley and Principal Meg Staples.
Principal Meg Staples and Vice-Captain Milly Ridley from Forbes Public School were warmly welcomed at Parkes Que as the Thuringowa Quota Club in Queensland had sent, via our club, $2,300 to be used where it would do the greatest good for our regional flood victims.
Milly gave a powerpoint presentation and talked about what had happened at their school, beginning with a map of Australia, with a dark line drawn, linking Thuringowa with Forbes and expressing that ‘Distance does not prevent kindness.’
When the flood first threatened, teachers and pupils raised everything up as high as they could, but 80% of the buildings were filled with water and the school was lost. The situation was so grim that the army arrived to help then cleanout the buildings and salvage anything that was possible.
Principal Meg then continued “The Principal of Forbes High (not impacted by the flood waters) rang her and suggested that they could set up a temporary school in part of their grounds, and so 31 demountables were placed on site in just 20 days and they had 80 children there the first day and 300 by the end of the week, which included some children from Eugowra.
Meg told us that “after a year of living on adrenalin, many of the flood victims were now feeling very down, and the donation would be used to hold a free community barbeque where they could all come together to talk, to exchange ideas and stories, to laugh a bit, to enjoy a bit of entertainment, perhaps to pick up some useful things, but mainly to break the isolation and despair many were now feeling as they battled to begin life again”.
“A school is more than just bricks and mortar” said both Milly and Meg.
By Pam Nankivell