May 5: Annie Costello: Overcoming Life in a Wheelchair
Emily is Alan & Di’s 3rd daughter. She was born with a narrow aorta and was operated on at 5 months old to correct this. Unfortunately she contracted septicaemia and lost the use of her legs. She was never expected to walk again. However, Emily surprised them all by working tirelessly to regain enough use to get around on crutches. Her main source of mobility was her wheelchair. Emily’s presentation was centred around how she mastered her disability and excelled in all she attempted. She never approached life thinking she was disabled and Alan, Di and the rest of her family supported her in this encouraging her to do anything she wanted to do. Her teachers embraced the Costello program and ethos and she partook in virtually all the School activities making sure the preparation for her to partipate was in place, so she grew up with a can do approach to life. Some of her early triumphs:
- one of the first disabled students integrated into a public School.
- Joined into all sports at school
- Abseiled doing a “bum shuffle”
- Mastered swimming and represented Australia in disabled games in swimming (setting two USA records)
- Surviving many broken legs and heart surgery in Yr 12
- Graduated from ACU as a Primary teacher
After she graduated Emily applied to teach in Namibia and was accepted. This started a life long love with Africa. She completed a two year contracted, lived with a local family and returned again in 2000. She came home and completed a masters in Volunteering and was sent to Zimbabwe to help with the HIV epidemic. It was not a good time for the country and AIDS was not well supported there. Due to war and lawlessness, Australia pulled all Aussies out.
Emily then changed direction and went back to teaching but not in mainstream city schools but Aboriginal Community schools in N.T. She stated that it was he hardest job ever. IT was hard to engage the students and the community was not always safe. Each school had two teachers. Often she had only 12 out of 80 students enrolled attending. Much of the teaching happened out doors. Luckily not all Communities were the same and she felt that if the community were generally employed and the Community ran the school, parents saw the importance of education, the students attended and succeeded. Emily advanced to mentoring the indigenous Principals of Community Schools. Some of her triumphs in this phase of her life:
- Principal of Yering Primary School in Victoria
- Leading Teacher at the Cebu International School, Philippines
- Learning to SCUBA dive
- Awarded a Pride of Australia Award
- In charge of training all volunteers for Australian Volunteers Interational
- Program Officer for Christian Blind Mission International.
Emily has stepped back a trifle after a serious leg break which as curtailed her mobility a bit. Since 2019 till now, she is a “full time” CRT for St Leonards in Brighton
It is difficult to encapsulate how vibrant, entertaining, enthusiastic and passionate, and dare I say, loud Emily is. We were blown away by how much she has achieved in her life. Disability is not a term that defines her.
3 minute Speaker: John Horscroft: His thoughts on Computers over His Life
John reflected on the impact of computers mainly in his career with the Royal Navy. Initially the computer brought great advancements in navigation. Calculations using a sextant became much easier and quicker - good bye the slide rule! Next , the computer didn't take up a whole cabin - another plus! Next came satellites and GPS, no more calulating your position and calulating courses and all you needed was a phone, again many advantages. Next, no manuals. Oh No, how do you use the thing? What can it do? Finally, AI now can you trust it. Does it make you redundant? What is happening? As John sees it, he has had enough wants it all to go away!
May 12 : Peter Stewart: Endurance Swimming
3 minute Speaker: Trish Stamp
May 19: Interplast and the Drama of Western Samoa
3 minute Speaker: Caryl Coulthard
May 26: Club Assembly
