Over the past fortnight, the character and spirit of many of our Olympians was clearly on display. One of the people who stood out for me was Cate Campbell. Cate showed incredible strength of character after swimming outstanding times as part of the relay team, in her 100m freestyle heat and semi-finals and then swimming her slowest time in the final. After many years of training and high performance in all but the medal race, there had to be a sense of great personal disappointment. With little time to process or manage emotions, Cate was immediately confronted by media. Great character shone through as she spoke with frankness, humility and depth and in subsequent interviews with humour. Her response to disappointment was that she could learn from this. She acknowledged the personal challenge of keeping perspective and not defining her worth as a person in terms of her gold medal haul. Offering no excuses, she took personal responsibility.
In her final swim, the 4x100m medley race, she swam Australia to silver after entering the pool in the final leg of the relay, with the team in fifth place. As well as some of her best swimming, we saw great spirit, determination and courage on display. Many of us will have gold moments in our lives. At other times, despite all of our best efforts and preparation, there will be moments of disappointment. Our Olympians have modelled the celebration of success with gracious humility and dealing with disappointment with emotional control, perspective, reflection, personal responsibility and a focus on learning. The story of Job in the Bible is an encouragement to us in those times of struggle and disappointment to not lose faith in a loving and gracious God or in our worth as a loved part of His creation.
Over the past couple of weeks, our College has experienced some great sporting success at the Queensland Schools Marathon Championships, the Inter-Lutheran Junior Athletics Carnival and the Secondary District Athletics Carnival. Congratulations to our kayaking team who took out the title of State Champions last weekend at the Gold Coast. We thank Mr Gary Graves for his coordination of this team and Dion Morgan, Mrs Colleen Beattie, Mrs Natalie Campbell and Mrs Rae Hall for their coaching assistance. Our Junior Athletics Team finished in second place against other schools in the region at the recent Inter-Lutheran Junior Athletics Carnival. We thank Mrs Natalie Campbell, Mr Damian Davis, Mr Kurt Jones and parent helper, Ms Melanie Boyall, for their support of our team and assistance at the carnival. Finally, we congratulate our Secondary Athletics Team on their performance at the District Athletics Carnival last week. Overall, the College finished in seventh place. We thank Mr Mark Hauser and his team for their support of our students and assistance at the carnival. Well done to all students who represented the College.
Our sponsors are also an integral part of OCEANfest and their support is very much appreciated. Thank you to Newwave Orthodontics, our Carnivale Partner, who also sponsored the event in 2014. Thank you also to Fowler Lawyers who sponsored the spectacular fireworks display, which closed the night.
Renay Greig
The students from Pacific Lutheran College cordially invite you to celebrate the opening of an exhibition of student work in Visual Art, from Kindergarten to Year 12.
