Report on the 2007 Youth Leadership Course
 by Youth Ambassador, Caitlin Penny

Good morning parishioners of Saint John’s Parish and visitors to the parish. On the Monday the Eighth of January, (Donna, Steffanie, Caitlin, Daniel and myself), accompanied by Robin Lovelock, took an early flight to the city of Canberra where we were to take part in the five day Toc H Youth Leadership Course. This course, run by Robin Lovelock, Owen Nicholls, Tony Reade, and Ray Geise, gave us an in depth look at the qualities required to be a good leader, and started many of us of on a journey to acquire them. Throughout our look at leadership we covered many different topics, including how leadership skills are developed, effective communication, and time management. We were even fortunate enough to have some of the best guest speakers, like Jack Waterford and General Peter Gration. By the end of this course we had made some irreplaceable memories, some friends for life and have strengthened our leadership skills.  As a result of this course, we are a more confident group of teenagers, we manage our time more effectively, we prioritize the things we need to do, and we have developed leadership skills to help us lead the youth of today. The value of this course in our lives is immense, and we were extremely privileged to be chosen as the Cairns representatives for this course. Les, we would like to thank-you for sending us to this program. We must, also, thank those who ran the program for us; it was a worthwhile course, and, as several of us have described it, fun. Thank-you for letting us talk to you today.