I am delighted to complete this article on behalf of Suzanne Camm. What a fantastic week we have had! The students of Group 38 need to be particularly congratulated for the nurturing and positive community that they have been a part of developing on campus. It is evident that each group that attends Clunes bring with it its own flavour. Group 38's greatest strength is the willingness of students to push the boundaries of their comfort zone to increase the value of their many and varied experiences. The running group is ahead of where it needs to be for students to complete the 12 kilometre run from campus to the top of Mt Beckworth without stopping at any point. Any encouragement from home is gratefully accepted as nerves begin to arise. Over three days this week students have completed three Collective Potentials, projects that could not be completed by an individual and benefit someone other than themselves. The three projects: 'River Rescue', where students camped out, assisting to re-vegetate a section of Birches Creek; 'Make and Create' where students are designing and building toys to be donated to kindergartens effected by the recent Victoria bush fires; and 'What Happens On Tour' where students have been rehearsing and performing at a variety of venues and locations, the highlight being the 7 Hills Cluster Arts Day where several Primary Schools from the region gathered for a range of workshops and performances at the racecourse. This week the days have become noticeably colder, with Clunes experiencing the most significant rain it has seen for months. The students asked me to thank you all for your letters and packages in the mail; it is a welcome surprise at the end of a long week.

Last Friday all the boys spent the night at the Clunes showground for the Boys to Men Program. When we got to the showground we were all able to see our dads. After saying hello to all the fathers we had dinner, which was Pasta Bake. After dinner and cleaning up we all sat around the fire and began talking. Many of the fathers had a lot of interesting things to say and for much of the night we all joined in the conversation. We also showed the fathers an important item and the fathers showed us something too. After a long talk we all went to bed. The next day we got up, packed our things, sat around the fire and began talking again, except this time the fathers gave us questions and we had to answer them. After the Boys to Men Program finished I definitely had more knowledge than I had before I went there.

In the Make and Create class we were told that we were making toys for the kindergarten in Marysville. The first day was all about designing your toy and getting it started. There were many good toy designs and many people were soon hard at work building their toys. By the end of the first day most of us had made a good start on our toys. On the second day we were almost finished building our toys and most people were now putting the finishing touches to their toys and some people were even starting to paint them. The Make and Create class was very good fun and it was going to a good cause.

Cluster sports on Tuesday night started off with a drive down to the sports hall. It was Red challenging Blue. Red was chosen first to do their chant, but it was Blue the second team that took the points. The first game of the night was Bowling. You had to bowl a tennis ball and it had to hit a chess piece about 10 meters from where you bowled it. Once again Blue took the victory. Jedi Ball was the second game. Blue had a great start hitting Reds Jedi in the first two minutes. There were no scores until there was only a minute to go, when Red had a throw from the quarter court line and hit the Blue Jedi. The last game was King Dodge Ball and Red was fired up. Red were able to win the first game, but Blue got the second. It came down to the last game where there were only about three people on each team left. Luckily Toby was able to knock over the block and Red went away the winners of King Dodge Ball.

Day three of Make and Create was the painting day. Matt and Emerson finished their helicopters so they were the first to paint them. Simone, Simone and Manny finished the dolls house, which was very big and they painted it pink, and Sarah built furniture for the dolls house. Harry and Jamie finished their cars and trucks, and Josh painted a very nice marble slope. Nick was just able to finish and paint his alphabet, while Joe created a barn, and Toby and Daniel built a big castle. Erin and Taylor created animals that went in a cage. Tom built a racing car and Grace finished a puzzle. The overall presentation was fantastic with some people hoping they could keep the toys because they were so proud of them. All of the toys that were created went off to the Marysville Kindergarten.

On the Saturday night of the second visiting weekend, students who were still on campus got the option of going to the Senior Citizens Barbeque. Only eleven of us went, Lucy W, Chloe, Josh, Isaak, Tom, Sarah, Grace, Mitch, Jamie, Sally and I. It was heaps of fun! We all brought a plate of food, which happened to be desserts, and we set off. First we got a chance to mingle with the senior citizens. Then we all sat down and ate dinner together. During dinner and dessert there was a raffle. Some of us won a prize. Sarah won a scarf, Isaak won woolen socks, Grace won a beanie, Tom won a scarf and Josh won a really cool beanie that we are all envious of! All prizes were hand knitted. At the end of the night when we had all been well feed we thanked the senior citizens with a poem that Tom had written. It was heaps of fun, and I recommend it to anyone next term that would like to go.

In the pit of the staff house there are crates of fruit. At the start of the term there was oranges, apples, grapes and bananas. But recently there have been mandarins as well. Everyone likes the fruit in the staff house, which is good because there is a cold going around. The most popular fruit are the grapes and these go quickly. The fruit is of really good quality.

This week we had Collective Potential. We had choices of what we could do and one of them was River Rescue. On the first day we had to walk two hours to get to our campsite. During the walk we had to jump many fences. Some of the fences along the way were electric and some people decided to touch them, getting a shock. After many people had had a shock, they decided to give everyone a shock at the same time, so everyone got into a line and held hands. When we got to the campsite we all got into our tent groups and set the tents up. The girls put all the tents close together, but the boys put them as far away from each other as they could. After we had set up the tents and had lunch we walked over to where we were going to be doing work. We were given some jobs to do. We either did fencing, checked the plants or mulching. When everyone had finished there jobs they all came and helped the mulching people finish their job. Some people had a hay fight and got it everywhere. That night we had sweet potato risotto for dinner. We ate dinner around the fire. Some people also stargazed and saw lots of shooting stars. The next day we got up at eight to have our breakfast. For breakfast Nin and the cooks made porridge or we could have cereal and toast. At nine we headed across the road to do our jobs. Some people did fencing, while the rest of us made sure the trees would be protected for the winter. At eleven we all had morning tea and then some people swapped over jobs. We continued doing these jobs until lunchtime, when we then headed back to our campsite. After we had finished lunch and cleaned up we then headed over to do the last bit of our work for the day. The afternoon’s work was fencing, weeding or shoveling dirt to cover up a rubbish heap. When we got back to the camp the runners all got changed while the fitness people started a walk. For the run we ran to a revegetation site. The runners accidentally ran through a muddy puddle and they all ended up with muddy feet. When we got to the site we looked at what we were aiming for with our work and the differences between the site and a paddock. We then either ran or walked back to the campsite. That night we had minestrone soup for dinner. We had Nin’s husband and kids, and Dan and EJ join us for dinner. After dinner we had a go at playing drums, we also played some funny camp games and sang songs. That night we got to toast some marshmallows on the fire which were really yummy. The next morning when we got up Nin and the cooks were cooking us a yummy breakfast of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. After breakfast we headed over to do our last days work. Our work was to plant one hundred trees, which took us about an hour. When we finished, we headed back to the campsite to pack up and have some lunch. After we had packed up and had lunch we had a massive water fight and slide. It was really fun, but very cold. After the water fight we all got on the bus and came back to Clunes. We all ran to get into the warm showers. When we were clean and dry we helped pack away and clean everything.

Last Saturday everyone went door knocking for the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal. We were split into groups and then were driven to the area where we would be door knocking. In our pairs we were given an area where we would be collecting the money. Many people were successful in their collecting of money and had lots of fun while they were doing it.

Collective Potential was a Program that ran for three days this week and it had a focus on something you couldn’t do on your own, but with help you could achieve. There were three options to choose from including River Rescue, Make and Create, and On Tour. In River Rescue they went out camping for three days and cleaned up the river environment, in Make and Create they made toys for the Marysville Kindergarten and in On Tour they practiced music and then went and performed at different venues.

Last Saturday Mitch, Jay and I played footy for the Clunes Football Team. When we got there we had to get a jumper and go out and warm up. The Clunes footy team started well, however, Spring Bank was too good and scored the first goal. Sam played an awesome game in the second half, crashing through packs and clearing the ball out of our back line. Spring bank scored a second goal in the third quarter to make it two goals to zero. Jay played well in the back line in the fourth quarter. Mitch also played well and picked up best on ground for his efforts in the midfield. In the end Clunes lost by 18 points to Spring Bank who were just too good for us.

Last Friday night all of the girls on campus (while the boys were away at Boys to Men) went into the Jube for a night of girly fun. We made ice creams, watched movies and played twister. A highlight was when all of the girls read out their letter to someone they admired and would like to thank. Some letters made us homesick, some made us cry and others made us laugh at all the silly times we have had with our loved ones. By the end of the (very emotional) letters we were all tired, but as true teenagers we suppressed the urge to sleep and watched a movie instead. We watched Benny & June and I think the only thing keeping us awake throughout it was the fact that Johnny Depp was a main character! It was a great night to be a girl and it was enjoyed by all.

This past week has been very full on for the ‘What Happens On Tour’ crew. On the first day of our Collective Potential we had an intensive day of rehearsal in preparation for the next three days. The first venue we performed at was the Ballarat Racecourse for a Cluster Art Day held there with nine schools participating in the activities around the venue. It was a first for the Wesley at Clunes Program as they hadn’t performed there before, and the day was a great success. All the performances were amazing. Some of the crowd favorites were ‘Valerie’ performed by Alexandra, ‘Seven Nation Army’ and ‘Killing in the Name’ both performed by Goodnight Caterpillar, and ‘Love Song’ by Zoe and Steph. The audience loved all of the songs and we even had a mosh pit going for the last few songs of the day. The next day was the last day of Collective Potential and there was a gig on at the Creswick Retirement Home, where all of the acoustic and softer bands and musicians played for them. It was an emotional performance for both the senior citizens and performers, but all enjoyed it. The rock bands (and louder performers) stayed back to work on learning new songs and perfecting the ones they already knew in preparation for another gig at the Clunes Primary School on Friday. Everyone in the crew agreed that in the time they had to pull all the acts together they did an amazing job and we all had a blast on tour.

On the 28 of June 2009 the students of Wesley College Clunes went to the John Curtins Hostel to play to the aged residents. The songs played were quieter than usual because it was decided that the rock band would not be appreciated as much as the softer songs like the Minuet. The small concert consisted of 17 songs of softer texture and of varying ages. The concert lasted a total of one hour with only fourteen students and two teachers entertaining the hostel residents. The performance was appreciated and the caretakers noted that it is hard to keep the residents listening for such a long period of time. Overall, the concert was a success and a positive experience for both the students and the residents of the hostel.