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On Friday the 24th October our school celebrated Bandanna Day. Bandanna Day is a special day organised by CanTeen - The Australian Organisation for Young People Living with Cancer. CanTeen's mission is to support, develop and empower young people living with cancer.
We wear bandanna’s to show our solidarity with and support for all people with cancer, and especially for children and young people with cancer. The touchstone of CanTeen is the belief that young people, through meeting and talking with one another, are better able to cope with the uncertainties of a cancer diagnosis.
On Bandanna day we especially remember one of our past students, Dane Lewis. Dane Lewis was a student at Our Lady of the Way school from grade one in 1996 to grade seven in 2002. It was in 2002 that Dane died of Leukaemia. In the years Dane was a student at OLW he was often very sick and had to miss quite a bit of school but whenever he could Dane would be here and involved in everything that was going on.
Dane had a good sense of humour, loved to have a game and got on well with everyone, teachers and students. Dane’s special gift was his ability to communicate. He was a very good public speaker and could also write a great story. If Dane felt strongly about a special cause he would write letters and speeches to present to the people he felt could change things.
When Dane died in 2002 the school set up an award to be given to a student each year on Bandanna day. Students in years 5 to 7 are eligible to receive the award. As Dane was such a good communicator the recipient of this award is someone who reflects some of the special gifts Dane himself had so it was decided to make it an award for excellence in communication. Excellence is striving to do your best. It is an effort guided by a noble purpose and the desire for perfection. Communication can take different forms. It can be expressive, creative, persuasive or functional. Communication is successful when shared understanding occurs. A student who is an excellent communicator may: be a talented writer; be persuasive eg. debating, public speaking; be able to explain, teach and/ or describe processes; use technology to communicate ideas; incorporate visual art into presentations that communicate ideas; use drama, dance or music to communicate ideas or be able to use a variety of skills to facilitate interaction between people.
During our liturgy on Friday we presented the Dane Lewis award for excellence in communication to Miss Taylah Conley! Dane was a shining example to us of how to live life well and treat each day as a gift from God as is our year seven student Taylah! Congratulations Taylah on this wonderful award.
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