Starlight Express Room/Boylan Ward Arts Exhibition

The events of this post happened a couple of days ago but the feelings and emotions are still as raw as they were in the moment. An opportunity had presented itself whereby i was given a chance to see an Art Exhibition presented on behalf of the Boylan Ward at the Women's and Children's Hospital, South Australia. This was an exhibition supported partly through work donations thus i jumped at the chance. I didn't know what to expect, all i knew was that the Boylan Ward does great work in helping adolescents with serious mental health issues get some semblance of normality back into their lives and that i was keen to see what this exhibition was all about.

After arriving at the Women's n Children's Hospital and having a nice chat with the humble and friendly volunteers there i am taken with my group to see the exhibition by our guide/curator. While the exhibition was not in the ward itself, it was nonetheless powerful n thought provoking. We were told all about the background of the paintings and where they had come from, the purpose of Boylan Ward and what they were looking to achieve in the future. The purpose of art, in the rehabilitation of adolescents in the mental health ward, is expression. Im not a patient myself but id imagine if you were living with a serious mental health problem you might find it difficult to express yourself and what you are feeling through written language. Thus the power of Art. It was truly uplifting to see how someone had originally created this concept for an art program which was doing so much good. Id imagine it could even provide future job opportunities which is just fantastic.

Shortly after the art exhibit, we went for a brief visit to see 'Starlight Express Room'. We weren't given a talk about the room and its history but all of us knew just what it meant and the impact it has had. The Express room impacted upon me the moment i laid eyes upon it. The 'Starlight Express Room' provides medical free respite children and their families. Quite often the kids in there are critically ill, are very sick or are getting sick of waiting around in the hospital corridors for their mum's and dad's, families n friends. This quote taken from their website (Starlight Express Room) sums up my thoughts quite well...

"Starlight is a very good example of what miracles are all about. Because of the facilities Starlight provide, our children actually look forward to visiting the hospital for treatment"

Please share this and get in contact with the Starlight Express Room via the above link for more information or the Women's n Children's Hospital via Teresa Whitehorn (the Business Development Manager for the WCH) at teresa.whitehorn@wchfoundation.org.au to see how you can be involved in something truly life changing :)

ForeverConflicted

This is just awesome!

The following is re-blog of a facebook post from a dear friend of mine who runs a children's charity/organisation called "Puddle Jumpers"....just wow....

Found this very cool initiative today that's bound to put a smile on your page... The Toy Society, which is a world-wide collective of toy makers – of varying skill levels– who make toys and leave them as gifts for perfect strangers.


The project was started in Australia in June 2008 with the idea of ‘something for nothing’ experience for anyone who discovered a toy.


What started as a small personal project has now spread around the world and become known as a Random Act of Craft. There are more than 3200 members throughout the world who have collectively gifted more than 1800 lovingly handmade toys to perfect strangers since the project began... check out the link for more info - what a really lovely idea :)


http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com.au/p/about.html

Please share this post and have a look at their page. What a great idea, this is the sort of stuff that makes me happy no matter what mood i am in, just inspiring stuff :D

So proud...

this is a long post, so please be patient...it's incredibly important to me  


I simply have to share this story that i was told today, while i'm still on such a positive high from it. The day started with me rushing a breakfast and heading to work. For the first few hours i was quiet, just going about my task, basically i felt like an expressionless zombie (the negativity of the previous night had sort of mentally broken me i think, "i get knocked down, i get back up again" should explain it). My mood started to pick up towards the end of the shift when i started to enjoy the thought of seeing a movie or just relaxing at home. A friend whom i was working with suggested coffee and a long overdue 'chin wag' (translation: chat/talk/conversation) and after almost 2 hours, i was a changed man. 


First i will describe the story (the short version), what i was thinking at the time and then finally what thoughts/lessons i took away with me. 


The Story: Through volunteering my friend met a young girl with whom she instantly formed a connection and this bond grew stronger and stronger the longer the camp went on. The camp was for those kids who were less privileged then others in one way or another. This particular girl had led an exceptionally hard life up until the point of the camp, the poor girl experienced an abusive childhood, was forced to mature way too early and her parents were largely absent in their responsibilities. She became a 'mother' to her elder siblings and largely missed out on simply 'being a kid' and that's what the camp was designed for, to allow these under privileged kids a few days where they can just be silly, get u[p to mischief and have fun. 


Now by and large, volunteers don't have any contact with these kids once the camp is over as there is potential for the kids to be let down and hurt even further, mostly through promises that can't be kept. My friend however was so deeply touched and moved by this girls plight that she could not simply stand by and do nothing, she couldn't stand by knowing that her new friend was simply being swept under the rug and forgotten about. She could not bear the thought of this child experiencing any more of the hardship that she had grew up with, it broke her massive heart every time she thought about it. Someone needed to be this little girls champion and give her hope. My friend did just such a thing. 


Keep in mind, there's been thousand's of volunteer camps, in Australia and overseas, and i have NEVER heard of a child's life being so positively changed as in this story. My friend provided a safe place to stay when the girl needed it, she became someone (possibly the first) whom the girl could trust and open up to and not feel that her vulnerability would be abused, she became her angel. The girl was taken from a school where bullying was prevalent, where kids were sent to be forgotten about to a prestigious school via a scholarship...via a few miracles of their own. My friend saw potential in this girl, saw a desire to be someone, observed her creativity, her intelligence and saw to it that the girl was placed in an environment where she could explore her full potential. Long story cut short, this girl is excelling in her new environment, is enjoying all the experiences that come along with growing up, being immature, being a kid and has a chance to even travel to new york and perhaps become a professional dancer! 


My thoughts: What an amazing girl i was talking to. Who has done what she had done? no one that i could think of, it just doesn't happen. I was incredibly proud of my friend and amazed at the lengths that she went to to enrich the life of another. It instantly restore my faith in humanity. I felt humbled in her presence, i was in awe...you name it, i felt it. I grew more inspired the more she spoke about what had happened and just how much this girl meant to her. I'm not religious by any means, but i think i even felt blessed to have this person in my life, incredibly lucky at the very least. I remember thinking that i wasn't surprised at all by the story in the sense that my friend just has one of those passionate, non-selfish, caring, giving personalities. I hoped she felt truly good about herself because she did a wonderful thing. I was hooked on every word and the more i thought about her own troubles, the more positively amazed i was that she did what she did. It takes incredible courage to stand up for another, especially when faced with troubles of your own. I can't do justice to the way i felt, so suffice to say, try to truly imagine yourself in my shoes 


The lessons/what i took from it: It's quite simple ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If this story isn't EVIDENCE then i don't know what is. I also got a real sense of what my friend valued the most and it helped put my own issues and insecurities into perspective. I felt that this needed to be shared in the hope that YOU TO WILL BE INSPIRED LIKE I AM. 


I might be just one person but i really, to my core, am inspired to make this world a better place. So inspired right now that i want to create a movement to be called the SHINING LIGHTS COLLECTIVE. This is NOT A JOKE and WILL BE SOMETHING I SHALL DEDICATE MYSELF TO. I urge you to start a SHINING LIGHTS COLLECTIVE chapter wherever you live, have the courage to make a difference. Use facebook, youtube, any outlet you have to share and spread the word. Comments are welcome but id love for your related posts to be linked to this particular blog.


Now get out there and make a difference 

I challenge you!

One person can make a difference, it's a fact, if even only a relatively small difference it can still be a step in the 'right' direction. Multiply this by ten, a thousand, a million and you can quickly see just how much of an enormous impact we can have.

What's that you say? You smell a Pyramid scheme coming on? Well in some respects you are right but i won't charge a single cent, with the only cost involved being the courage to realise you CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Anyone remember Kevin Spacey's "Pay it Forward"? Where the movie is based around a kid who significantly helped 3 people, who then helped 3 people each? so on so forth. I loved this movie and it's simple idea/message and believed that perhaps i too one day could help somehow.

Here's an example of something i randomly decided to do at work the other day. It was a friday morning/day shift, a short one notorious for being slow customer wise. I really wasn't in the mood to have the day drag on, so i decided i would have some fun with it. The challenge i set for myself was to see how many customers i could make laugh. By the end of the 5 hour shift i counted not 1, not 10....but no less then 80! Staff members on shift became interested to see just many i could achieve. It was possibly the most fun ive ever had on shift so i decided to post on the staff facebook page and urge my fellow work mates to take up the challenge to see if anyone could match my number or beat it. If everyone took up the challenge i think we would become a place to go for the customer service, not just our movies. To this date, i dont know if anyone has taken up my challenge.

Now, you don't have to do what i did, that's not the point of this post. My challenge to you is simple: brighten at least one person's day, each day, limited only by your means. Here are some general suggestions :)

1. Make someone laugh
2. Get someone to smile
3. Talk to someone who looks lonely
4.  Go out of your way to help someone

Id really love to hear about your efforts, either through a post linked to this blog or a comment posted below. I strongly believe we CAN AND WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I urge you to NOT SIMPLY READ THIS BLOG but to TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE!! :)

Thankyou and goodnight, good morning & good afternoon