TEDDY bears of all sizes waving from windows helped spread joy and lift spirits during last lockdown, but the desire to share hope is more literal this time around.
The Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has over the past week encouraged its families and students learning from home to create a poster or artwork with the word hope and place it in their front yard or front window.
Catholic Schools Office director Gerard Mowbray said students were encouraged to incorporate a rainbow and yellow, which is seen as a colour of hope.
"It was over and above their normal class work, it was an extra curricular activity," Mr Mowbray said.
"We wanted to give the kids something a little bit different.
"I think it's very easy in lockdown to be daunted by the challenge of lockdown, to be burdened by a lot of negative messages going around the community at this time and to be honest the lockdown gives us the opportunity to create some messages of real hope for our children, so that's why we sent this invitation out, not knowing if we'd get any responses at all and we have been delighted to be inundated with hundreds of posters from across the breadth of our diocese."
Mr Mowbray said the project was intended to promote wellbeing, as a positive outlet into which children could channel their energy, help children feel they were part of a larger network that extended beyond their school community and reinforce that this challenging time will pass.
"We wanted the posters to be public symbols, this wasn't just about an individual student creating a poster, we wanted it to be displayed across our region so passers by [outside] their home or school could think 'There's something really useful going on there with these children' and it has a ripple effect across the diocese sending out to the wider community fantastic messages of hope."
