Two of the strong messages that flowed from the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics were the need to care for the environment and the importance of education for all. These are two challenges that we can take on in our daily lives. In our work places and in our homes, we can consider how we might reduce our environmental footprint and expand educational opportunity.
At Pacific, we are planning to increase our renewable energy capacity and lessen the amount of rubbish we produce. As a step forward in this direction, funds raised at OCEANfest will go toward the expansion of our solar energy system. We are also exploring the use of lower energy lighting and cooling strategies. On an individual level, all of us can think about how to do more with less, particularly plastic. A simple step may be to consider ways to lessen the unrecyclable packaging we use in our lunch boxes. This will be an ongoing conversation with our community.
In his acceptance speech as the first ever athlete to receive the Olympic Laurel award, past Kenyan Olympic champion, Kipchoge Keino, spoke about the importance of education as a means to improve the world, including growing peace. It was a reminder for us not to take the educational opportunities we have in Australia for granted and to look at ways we can support educational opportunity across the globe. In a very small way we are going to provide the opportunity to make a difference at OCEANfest. At the festival, people will be able to make solar light kits that will then be sent overseas for children to use to read at night. Pacific’s ongoing relationships with the Life Centre in Kampong Chnang and tertiary hostel in Phnom Penn are two further ways that we as a community can make some contribution to improving the educational opportunities of young people. In the words of Kipchoge Keino, “We came into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing”. It is what we do for others during our time on earth that makes the difference.
Senior student, Dylan Creedon and our Junior Drama students performed very well at the Sunshine Coast Drama Festival Highlights Evening on Saturday night. Dylan Creedon’s solo entry received a gold award and our junior entry of ‘Growing Up’ also received a gold award as well as the Aspiring Actors trophy, which was one of the two major awards for the evening. This is an outstanding achievement and we congratulate all students involved. We thank Mrs Janine Delaney and Mrs Laura Bonner for their leadership and direction. 
As per the previous festival in 2014, we will be running a cashless event. There will be ‘cash for tickets’ available for purchase in the days prior and there will also be booths onsite on the night, plus an ATM. Refunds of unused tickets are only available on the night. The ‘cash for tickets’ will also be available at the College from 17th August, outside the main administration office.
Over the last two weekends, 40 of our Drama students performed at the Sunshine Coast’s Drama Festival. Only in its second year, the Festival aims to promote excellence in Drama performance. Our students proved to be outstanding ambassadors for Drama at Pacific and in the wider community.
Congratulations to all who sang at St Mark’s Lutheran Church last Sunday in the ‘Hymns We Love’ service. All students and staff performed with dignity, excellence and musicianship. Parishioners, parents and friends made many favourable comments to me regarding your professionalism, demeanour and beautiful singing.
Meet Tiffany (left) who is playing the role of Lin. Her favourite line from the musical is, "You can never trust a dragon who can regrow its own tail”. Tiffany’s favourite thing about rehearsing is, "When we all work together and the scenes start coming together”.
If you are interested in a school based hairdressing traineeship with Stefan please contact Mr Ian Learoyd or contact Stefan’s Head Office on 07 3840 0000 for further details. The College will be interviewing Year 12 school leavers for fulltime, first year apprenticeships starting in 2017 and Year 11 students who will be starting Year 12 in 2017 will be interviewed for our school-based apprenticeship positions.
