By Dongyun Kwon
Some of Mount Lilydale Mercy College’s Year 9 students travelled to Healesville to lend a hand at the Nicholas Timms Retreat House on Wednesday 11 October.
It is part of the community rotation of the Year 9 program called Horizon.
“We have three different groups going to different places as part of the program and the groups rotate regularly,” Teacher Greg Hysted said.
“One comes out here to a retreat house helping with maintenance and gardening, another group goes to a school in Lilydale helping kids with reading and writing and the last group does some crochet work for donation.”
The teacher thanked the school for prioritising the program which he said was “nice” and “rewarding”.
“It is really great for them to be able to do this during school time as a part of education, which is different from traditional education,” Mr Hysted said.
The students mainly tended to the lawns and prepared the veggie patch to help Nicholas Timms Retreat House Caretaker Sue Jennings who runs the property by herself.
Ms Jennings said she was “grateful” for their help which was “fantastic”.
“It’s been nearly two years since the school has helped us,” she said.
“The students work really hard and help me with a lot of things that I couldn’t do myself, they do anything from cleaning the windows, decking, mowing the lawns, guttering to weeding.”
Nicholas Timms Retreat Foundation was formed in 2009 after 21-month-old Nicholas Timms passed away due to a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
His parents Michael and Belinda Timms decided to help other families with young kids who suffer from cancer.
The foundation started a project of building a retreat house collaborating with Challenge, which is a not-for-profit organisation supporting children and families living with cancer, to offer respite space for the families of children with cancer.
“We want to provide a respite space for the families of children with cancer to have some time out and regenerate the batteries because one of the things that happens for those families is that they lose their home which becomes a very sterile place after they’ve been sick,” Challenge CEO David Rogers said.
Mr Hysted wanted the students to know the meaning of the activity by giving them background information about the place.
The day started with a quick tour of the property to explain what the Nicholas Timms Retreat House is for and students were impacted positively by the activity.
“The students are really engaging in it and it is reflected on their faces how much the activity means to them with recognising the positive impact they are having on people who are going through a tough time at the moment,” Mr Hysted said.
“We’ve had students in the past who have come here and enjoyed it so much they’ve volunteered their own personal time outside of school hours to come back and help this place.”
Student Lien Sawyer said the activity was “fun” and “helpful” and got him some fresh air outside school.
“I learn a lot of general life skills from this activity while I am helping the young kids with cancer,” Sawyer said.
“Today, I did casual gardening and maintenance stuff.
“I snipped out the back and hope this will give some good feeling to the kids with the cancer when they walk around here.”
Anyone interested in supporting Challenge can visit the website www.challenge.org.au
