Being part of the Salesian family at Chadstone means that we stand together, whatever the challenges that we face; and we are certainly being challenged now. However, we are doing it very much the Salesian way and living our values of Integrity, Respect, Belonging, Joy and Dynamism. It is the living of these values that allowed us to experience Don Bosco’s Oratory Week with a difference this year, still filled with the joy of Salesian Spirituality.
As members of the Salesian Family we support our brothers and sisters wherever they are and whatever their need is. At Chadstone, we do this by providing a focus in our Term 2 program, in particular, during Don Bosco’s Oratory Week. It is such an important celebration that aims to celebrate:
- Being part of the Salesian Family,
- Being a faith filled community,
- Who we are as a multi-cultural and diverse community,
- The social justice work we dedicate ourselves to
And of course, to have lots of fun together!
Due to the impact of the COVID Pandemic this did not take place in Term 2. Plans were made for Term 3 but unfortunately this was not able to take place either. At Salesian College, we pride ourselves on the sense of community and belonging we share, and we really wanted to do something to celebrate. This year in particular, it is important to feel and stay connected.
Each member of our community received a parcel in the mail with all they needed to participate in Don Bosco’s Oratory Week 2020. It was a week-long event that took place each and every morning. The activities tried to focus on ‘non-screen’ time and all students were encouraged to take photos and send them in to dbosco@salesian.vic.edu.au
Activities included:
- Walkathon activity using the Strava App
- Year level Banner activity reflecting on our contribution to the Salesian Family
- Writing letters to young people in Salesian schools in Cambodia
- Salesian Word Searches
- Colouring and Drawing opportunities
- Creating Salesian themed Memes
- MasterChef cooking activities including pancake making and noodle dishes
- A Kahoot based on Salesian and sport trivia
- A Lego masters Competition
- Creating structures with paddle pop sticks
- Tetris competitions
- Best Trickshots in ISO
The week began with an opening ceremony where Father Chamber’s reminded us of the meaning of Oratory and declared the Don Bosco’s Oratory Week open. Activities followed from there. Oratory teachers were an integral part of the week, inspiring boys to get involved. Our senior leaders too encouraging the student body to get behind the week of fun.
Our aim for the Walkathon was to try to collectively walk to Cambodia and back. Together we successfully walked over 9000km which certainly got us to Cambodia and a third of the way back! We also raised nearly $3,000, and I would like to thank everyone for their donations. I am certain they will be well received.
Congratulations to the following boys who were the leaders in their respective year levels:
Year 7 Tate Mole (7A) 139.4km
Year 8 Abhav Chenanda Karumbaiah (8G) 64km
Year 9 Ben Bawden (9A) 88km
Year 10 Andrew Avramopoulos (10D) 88.7km
Year 11 Jordan Ratumu (11D) 70.4km
Year 12 Kevin Joshua (12A) 59.5km
Our staff leader board was as follows:
Nes Barakat – 95km
Trudy Skarajew – 87.8km
Ria Khambete – 54.7km
Peter Knight – 54.5km
Scott Peacock – 51.5km
Atul Khambete 45.7km
Josh Bryan – 44.5km
Stephanie Lai – 40.3km
Craig Abernethy – 37.6km
Georgina Dow – 36.1km
We had lots of staff and students send in their photos and the following entries were our winning entries. Not everyone could win, but the entries were amazing and boys should be really proud of their efforts. There is certainly much talent which exists in lots of different areas.
Honourable mentions to the following boys for their Banner contributions:
Spencer Guzzo 7A
Kolby Battye 7F
Smauel Gould 8C
Oscar Biviano 8C
James Peluso 10B
Josh Skarajew 11B
Gratitude to the following boys who reached out to young people in Cambodia through the Pen Pal activity:
John Truong 10F
Kosta Balakas 9B
Lance Kieu Year 10F
Dean Gentile 7C
Themi Gounaris 7C
Julian Geros 7C
Ruben D’Agostino 8B
Ryan Thmoas 8G
Tiernan Coyles 7H
Congratulations to the following Salesian Word Search winners:
Junior Winner: Jordi Dermitzakis 8F
Senior Winner: Pramishka De Alwis 10B
Congratulations to the following Tetris Winners:
Junior Winner: Julian Demarco 7H
Senior Winner: Aidan Tran 10G
Honourable mention: Mrs Bellizia
Congratulations to our Paddle Pop Stick Creators:
Junior Winner: Aidan Rhys Fernandes 7B
Senior Winner: Daniel Muscat 12B
Congratulations to our Salesian DBOW themed Meme Competition:
Wissam Maleb 7A
Derick Maimarosia 8A
Aidan D’Souza 9C
James Topliff 9E
Congratulations to the following boys for their drawing entries:
Junior Winner: Andrew Doan 9D
Senior Winner: Mark Skopakow 11B
Honourable mention: Pramishka De Alwis 10B
Salesian and Sport Kahoot Winners ordered according to time and correct responses:
Junior
Anton Occhiuto 7F
Alex Sabljak 7B
Harrison Window 7H
Jordi Dermitzakis 8F
Senior
Sam Cherry 10D
Jackson Luzares 10E
Liam Knight 10G
Congratulations to our mindful colouring entries:
Dean Bombonati 7F
Abel Joseph 7G
Mrs Garofalo
Congratulations to our Talent and trick shot winners
Kristian Aparo 10C
Francis Maimarosia 11E
Scott Fisher 12A
Jacob Curry 12C
Andrew Byan 7G
Patrick Quach 7B
Congratulations to our Lego Winners:
Made with Lego provided….
Ben Vu 8E
Keelan Corcoran 11C
Ms Ellul
Ms Thean
Made with additional Lego…
Aidan Rhys Fernandes
Congratulations to our pancake makers:
Iskra Zlatanovski 8E
Pramishka De Alwis 10B
Congratulations to our staff brownie makers:
Mrs Skarajew
Mrs Triaylos
Congratulations to our Mystery Noodle Box Challenge winners:
Andre Ghaly 8G
Alvin Yala 10G
Mr Zhang
Mr Azar
And finally for our staff gardening challenge:
Mrs Arnold
Ms Tsiavis
Oratory Quiz
As part of our DBOW 2020 activities, Oratories competed to win the traditional Oratory quiz. The quiz questions covered topics including Don Bosco’s story, ‘UnGoogleable’ trivia and brain teasers. This year the winning Oratory was 12A with Mr Beurs. Each student from 12A will be receiving a $10 Uber Eats Voucher. Congratulations!
For bonus points, our Quiz asked each Oratory to submit an image which captures DBOW 2020. Below are some of the creative submissions we received.
Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who contributed to making this DBOW such a success.
Mrs Nadia Knight
Assistant Principal – Mission and Staff Formation