A Dream Come True..

Dream. Come up with an idea. If it seems sensible, follow it through. And when you have achieved your dream, enjoy the moment … and then have another dream!

Last year I had a dream. An upgrade of the North Canberra sewerage system was about to take place and would incorporate the building of four concrete, block- like buildings to house ventilation machinery. The buildings were to be painted – an artist had been commissioned and designs tendered.

The Lions Croke Place Wetlands Land Care site has one of these buildings and I felt that the Miles Franklin Primary School Year 5 students, who undertake studies each fortnight at the landcare site, might be given the opportunity to make their own design for its walls. ICON Water and their contractors, Diona, agreed to the idea, and the school principal and staff were very enthusiastic.

So, with pictures of wildlife taken along Ginninderra Creek and further downstream, the students came up with a design that was a mini-geography lesson for the building’s walls – pictures of the flora and fauna to be found at Croke Place, in and around the Ginninderra Creek, and then on to the Murrumbidgee and the Murray Rivers, all the way to South Australia where the river enters the sea.

By arrangement, ten of last year’s Year 5 students were recently invited to put the finishing touches on the paintings. The media came and the ten smocked students, brush-stroked under guidance, adding to the marvellous pictures of birds, frogs, dragonflies, grasses and shrubs, riverbank scenes, and finally, of the pelicans that live at the Coorong over 1100 kilometres away.

The students ‘own’ that painting, as they ‘own’ the shrubs and trees that they have planted in Croke Place’s wooded areas. And if their painting brings as much pleasure to those passing through the land care site as their plantings do, the community is in for a long-lived delight.

So, if you find something in your community that will serve to increase the educational activities of school students, scouts and cubs, or other such groups, you will be providing a lifetime of well-being – for the young people, for those who visit their handiwork, and, with a little luck, for the community, as those who took part in the dream, replicate such opportunities for others throughout their lives. And those you deal with, as you achieve your dream, will admire the Service that Lions undertake, may wish to join Lions, but will certainly be willing to entertain another project that brings so much pleasure to all associated with it. I’m proud to be a Lion – and a dreamer!