Today, students from the first-year writing class, WRIT1005, the Fundamentals of Writing, in the School of Communication & Arts, from the University of Queensland, read their Tiny Tales to children at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
Rachael Caskie (pictured) read “Hello Jack”, the story of a little boy who was a falcon, a crocodile, a dingo, and a jellyfish, and finally just Jack.
download a PDF of Rachael's story here
Renee Poli read, “We’re all Doomed”, a naughty story about a near disaster averted by a clever and flatulent dog.
Giorgia Kilpatrick told the children about Terrible Toby, a lonely pirate who found friends who wanted to scour for sapphires, snapdragons and socks.
Kayla Hitchman took the children on a fantasy balloon adventure with a return ride on a dragon.
Georgia Alderton described a magic mutating treehouse that was a pirate ship, a submarine, a castle, and a jungle hide away, and Milly Scott’s “Myrtle the Turtle” fulfilled her dream of being a police turtle by coming first in the running race.
Several of the stories were beautifully illustrated by TAFE Senior College Art students at Alexandra Hills, under the direction of their art teacher, Cally Cronk.
More than fifty individually printed and bound stories, written by UQ students, were delivered for the hospital’s flexi school. Those that were not illustrated included a section for the children to draw their own pictures.
The idea was the brain child of a Bachelor of Business Management final-year student, Peter Bagi, who is passionate about writing and has taken as many writing electives as he can.
“I felt there are so many talented writers writing incredible stuff, but it wasn’t really going anywhere. I’ve also wanted to volunteer at a children’s hospital for a long time, so I thought of Tiny Tales. A project to inspire students to write and bring joy to kids in hospital.”
At the beginning of the year, Peter approached writing lecturers in the School of Communication & Arts to see if he could invite their students to write a story. Students doing the Fundamentals of Writing were delighted to be involved in such a worthwhile project.
Lynne Seear, the Manager of the Arts Program at the hospital was very happy to have the students visit with their stories. Children sat in groups with a student from UQ and one from TAFE. Once they listened to a story and saw the illustrated ones, they enthusiastically set about illustrating their own.
The students involved in this collaboration from TAFE are all studying Visual Arts as part of their year 11 and 12 studies. They included Christy Berga, from year 11, and Kate Murdock, Ashley Parker, and Alanna Hunter from year 12.
When asked about the collaboration, Alanna said, ‘I enjoyed the project as it gave me an insight as to what it’s like being an illustrator. Ashley said, ‘I loved the chance to be a part of a wider community and I’m excited to deliver the books at the launch’; Christy commented, ‘I have never done anything like this before, it’s such an exciting project and I loved drawing for a good cause’.
Peter sees this as the beginning of bigger things.
-
October 27, 2016
