Big Picture story goes viral

In the wake of the floods and extreme weather in the Hunter Region of NSW a couple of weeks ago, Big Picture Education was forwarded an absentee note from the mother of a Cooks Hill Campus student. The note detailed Joshua's tireless and enthisiastic volunteer work for the State Emergency Service.

Impressed by what Joshua had achieved during the week and with his and his mother's approval, we posted the note to our Facebook page. Two days later the post had more than 12500 likes, over 850 comments, and 1300+ shares.

The Newcastle Herald also picked up the story and ran an article about it.

If you're not a social media user and missed the post you can see it and some of the wonderful comments here. 

Below is the absentee note from Josh's mum:

To Whom It May Concern,

This is just to confirm that Joshua Haigh has not been at school for the last 4 days due to flooding in Maitland (Tue 21 - Fri 24 April 2015).

I thought I would let you know what he has been up to in this time.

From 5am Tuesday morning Joshua decided (since we had no power and hence no computers) that he would come with me to work and make coffee for the volunteers at Region HQ State Emergency Service (SES).

On arrival we parted company and he went off in the direction of the kitchen.

2 hours later he appeared at my desk in full SES gear and an arm full of wet clothing.

He and Mick had gone on a supply trip and had to get out in rising water to assist a motorist get safely out of his car with water rising up to the windows. For the rest of the day he was racing all over the district with Mick arranging food supplies and equipment and keeping the generator full and running, and power pumping through the building.

Wednesday morning at the change of shift, with Joshua in full SES gear, he was assigned his own small team of drivers and volunteers - he was in change of keeping the generator going, greeting anyone that arrived at the front door looking for help, ordering and pick-up of all meals and food for the Region HQ staff (at the time up to 50 people), letting the teams’ office know when the out-of-area teams arrived for reassignment, directing the general team to food, and showing the team leader to the HQ team manager to register. Every time he needed to leave the building the chaplain was right behind him with the car keys in hand -they got on like life long friends.

He has now worked with the SES, Rural Fire Service, NSW Fire and Rescue and police from all over the state, and of all rank.

Tuesday and Wednesday Joshua worked the full 16-hour shift that I did.

He continued to work on Thursday in smaller shifts and Friday he was stood down for a required break. We will go back over the weekend.

I think he will be glad to get back to School on Monday for a rest and his computers.

Regards

Mandy Haigh