Rationale & Aims:

This project is offered through the Year 9 Student Ministry to the Year 9 student community. Student Ministers make themselves available to dress and decorate a bear and to undertake to find another student from Year 9, forming a pair which offers to take “Norbie” to someone who needs support and care within the community. Anyone in the College can nominate a person for a “Norbie Care Bear”.

When a nomination has been accepted by the Ministry as a recipient, the pair of students along with a staff member will deliver the bear. Over the course of the year there may be twenty to thirty recipients of “Norbie”.

Each delivery requires the pair to complete a preliminary section of a reflection paper which helps the student to identify and articulate their feelings before the delivery takes place. The remainder of the reflection paper is completed afterwards giving the student the chance to reflect on the actual experience of delivery.

Christians have long used the visitation of the sick and the suffering as an expression of the desire to serve love and goodness. It would be hoped that the students who experience this project will experience and be changed in the following ways:  

• Place a higher value on their personal health and well being
• Appreciate more deeply the gift of life.
• Demonstrate care and compassion to a stranger.
• Develop greater confidence to reach out to others.
• Experience the transformative power of love in service, acting as Christ’s hands and heart in the world.

Resources

Norbie Care Bear Project Reflection Paper