When student Elliette Sutcliffe celebrates Schoolies Week, she will turn her back on Gold Coast parties for a unique experience that might change her life – and that of several other people too.
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Ms Sutcliffe, 18, from Duns Creek, will leave Maitland on Thursday morning to join 35 other Year 12 students from Wallsend’s Macquarie College on a trip to Vanuatu.
There, the students will stay at the village of Olwi for a nine-day adventure.
With their food cooked by local villagers, the pupils from the Seventh Day Adventist Macquarie College will paint classrooms, do general maintenance in the school grounds, host kids’ club activities and help children to read and write.
“I can visit the Gold Coast to party at any time,” Ms Sutcliffe said.
“But at the end of my school life, I wanted to do something that would mean so much more to me.
“The group I will be with all share my views too. We felt it was a time to give something back to a community.”
So while many of her classmates will be living it up in headline-grabbing frolics, Ms Sutcliffe may well be toiling in tough conditions.
“It is a challenge I want to experience which I believe will help to develop all of us as individuals,” she said.
“And I feel that helping other people over there is very worthwhile.
“I’m told the kids over there don’t have very much, but they are grateful for what they do have.
“I want to learn something about their attitude to the way they spend their lives.
“It seems they are always able to smile.”
She hoped the project might also lead to other people travelling to Vanuatu to help on similar projects.
“But I feel this is not just about us going over there to help those people,” Ms Sutcliffe said.
“I think there is also a lot they can teach us.”
