Trundle School Teaches Us

Remo Blog Dec 2018

It really is true, when they say “Lift your head up to smell the roses”.

There is a school six hours west of Sydney called “Trundle Public School”. The headmaster of this school, John Southern, hosts 120 students from Kindergarten through to Year 12. John would be what they call “good country folk”.

With NSW now entirely in drought, officials have confirmed the dry winter has intensified what has been called the worst drought in living memory and John Southern is doing his best to make a difference.

I first heard of John while watching a Sunday morning news program featuring stories of the drought. There was so much doom and gloom in the west and John was a man wanting to make a difference. He decided to do something to brighten the days of his students, so he painted the doors of the school in bright colours to create an oasis for his students. He wanted them to know that not everything was all bad. He also fixed up an old abandoned shower room within the school so the kids from farms could come in and shower each day.

John had started something positive and before long he ended up with two washing machines for the school. This meant that not only could the kids shower at school but the families could also wash their clothes there. At this point in the interview they had my undivided attention – how inspiring!

John began talking about his hopes for the next stage. He said he had written to six different shampoo companies and in fairness he didn’t mention if they were professional or consumer based, but none of them had replied. I was absolutely devastated as I felt it was such a poor effort from our industry. The interview finished with John getting onto a Sydney radio station and as a result lots of people jumped in to help out.

Joe and I had been discussing the drought and thinking of ways we could help only a couple of weeks prior to seeing the story about Trundle Public School on television. This created an opportunity for us to help, so I contacted John at the school and told him I would make a few calls to see if I could gather the troops and make a difference.

We went to work contacting people we knew and long story short, we were able to arrange some supplies for the school with the help of some amazing people.

Joe managed to get some washing powder supplied for the school through a long-time friend and past hairdresser whose family has the distribution rights for Maytag washing machines.

My good friend Luke Weber from Juice was able to help with a supply of shampoo and conditioner and Michael Harris of Salon Haircare was very generous with his supply of body wash. So generous in fact, that it will be some time before they run out! Joe and I also came to the party by supplying each student with a De-knot Duo.

I had also spoken to Chris Delorenzo who had already been involved with Trundle School, which was good enough for me.

So, the moral of this story is? …How awesome is our industry! What really stood out for me was that nobody I spoke to asked for anything in return and made their decision to help with no deliberation. ffffffff