Kindness in the Formative Years: McCrindle Research

8/2/2019 Kindness in the Formative Years: McCrindle Research

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4. Acts of Kindness in the

Formative Years

Morris Iemma, Former Premier of NSW

Goodness is All Around Us

I’ve got rich memories o some special people who were there

when I needed them as a child and a teenager, and I’m proud to

h h b ld h h d h



Mrs Erskine was my English teacher, and she showed me

that with patience and care, average kids can have a chance too;

while Maurice Cohen, my economics teacher, taught me thateconomics is not just about prot but about people.

Both o them helped uel the sense o community service

and social justice that impelled me into politics and sustains me

to this day.Te other big inuence was my old ooty coach, John Vizard,

who taught me that success comes rom character, persistence

and eort – not showmanship or glamour. Another abiding

inuence.

Now these men and women would probably argue they

were just doing their jobs.

But or a shy, suburban kid growing up as an only child,

these ordinary heroes changed my lie – or the better and orever.

h ld d h h d h



Geraldine Brooks, International Best-selling Author

and Pulitzer Prize Winner

Miss Glasby

I never met Althea Glasby, but her kindness

shaped my childhood.

Miss Glasby was a riend o my grandather.

I have no idea how they met; I know they

shared an interest in Eastern philosophy. From

time to time, they would meet with riends

at Miss Glasby’s little house in Bondi to read

d d h k h



beautiully bound, lavishly illustrated. One o the rst was

Orlando the Marmalade Cat , an extraordinarily engaging book

by the writer and artist Kathleen Hale. I have it, still: oxed anddog-eared now rom many loving readings, its price, 8s 6d, an

inscrutable code by the time I took it down rom the shel, a ew

years ago, to read to my own son.

Somehow, Miss Glasby had an unerring instinct or choosingthe very book I needed to have as I grew and changed. Lamb’s

ales rom Shakespeare arrived just in time to open an important

door leading to an intense inatuation with the bard. When I

was twelve, she sent me Te Lord o the Rings , just as olkien wasachieving cool cult status. A ew years later, the I Ching arrived,

allowing me to impress my adolescent girlriends with my insights

into the nexus between Jungian psychology and ancient Chinese

wisdom. As with all the book she sent me, it was inscribed, in blue

d l l d h d



in ne abrics and suits with peplums. I have no idea i I saw

correctly.

I also have no idea why this woman spent so much time andthought on a child she didn’t know. My grandather had other

grandchildren, and she did not send books to them. Whatever

the reason, I wish I could thank her in person. I wish I could tell

her how those books shored up a love or the written word thatgrew over time into a career and a calling. I would like to give her

one o the books I’ve written, a nice, hardback rst edition. Te

signature wouldn’t be as ne and uid as hers, but in my own

pedestrian scrawl I would say thank you, or the gits that helped

to lead me to a lie in books.

d

Geraldine Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize in fction in 2006 or



Professor David de Kretser AC, Governor of Victoria

Welcome to Melbourne

A large ocean liner pulls slowly into Station Pier at Port Melbourne

and a amily – ather, mother and two children aged teen and

nine years – look rom the decks at their new homeland.

It is a hot summer’s day in late January 1949. It is a dierent

world rom the tropical island then called Ceylon, now Sri Lanka,that they let nearly three weeks earlier. Tey were uncertain what

awaited them, other than accommodation that had been booked

at a rooming house in St Kilda.



Irish intonation, she announced that she was Lily urner, the only

contact available to the amily in Melbourne.

She insisted on accompanying the amily to their new lodgingsin St Kilda, to ensure that they reached the correct destination. It

was quite clear that she looked disapprovingly at the quality o the

accommodation and invited the amily to visit her at her home in

Hawthorn, oering to help in many other ways.wo weeks later, the youngest boy developed pneumonia.

When this news reached Lily urner, she sprang into action and

insisted that the amily should leave their lodgings in St Kilda as

this was not suitable accommodation or “the wee boy”. So it was

that the amily was welcomed to Melbourne, staying with Lily

urner or several months until they moved into their home in

Deepdene. Tis was an act o overwhelming kindness to strangers

rom another land.



Gavin Wanganeen, Former Captain of AFL Team

Port Adelaide and Brownlow Medallist

A Legacy of KindnessWhen I was seventeen, I moved to Melbourne to play with the

Essendon Football Club. Te club had organised a amily to look

ater me or the rst year or so. Tis amily took me in as one o

their own. Tey had three children around the same age as me.Tey gave me so much support and encouragement and really

made me eel like I was a respected member o their amily, even

though I wasn’t related to them.



or me i I hadn’t been taken care o by this amily? Tings in my

ootball career went well or a long time ater that and it was no

coincidence.Even now that I am 35 years old, that was eighteen years ago

and they still occasionally call to say “hi” and see how I am and

how my amily is going.

It just goes to show what kind o people they are: kind, loving,selessness, all those things. Te sort o people you’d be happy to

have be a part o your amily.

d

Gavin Wanganeen is the South Australian Ambassador or Youth Opportunity and has been since 2008. He is also avoluntary ambassador or the Australian branch o the White Ribbon Campaign which is a men’s campaign that tackles



Natarsha Belling, News Presenter,

Channel 10 Sydney

An Act of Kindness I Will Never Forget

I have a very special story to share where I experienced a wonderul

random act o kindness that changed my lie, both personally and

proessionally.

I was a nal year Broadcast Journalism student at Charles Sturt

University in Bathurst and had opted to research and produce a

radio documentary on mental illness as my major assignment. I

researched the topic thoroughly, concentrating on schizophrenia.



amilies. She was at the oreront o mental health awareness

campaigns and eventually set up the Schizophrenia Fellowship

Support Group.

I thought Anne would be antastic talent or my documentary

and loved the idea o sharing her story. I believed mental illness

was (as it is today) severely misunderstood and the more I could

do to raise awareness, the better. I sincerely believed I never hada chance o contacting Anne, let alone interviewing her, but I

decided to do my best. Tis was where Anne’s random act o

kindness changed me orever. I managed to track her down and,

despite her hectic schedule, she not only volunteered to speak withme, but invited me into her home to personally share her story.

Anne spoke with me at length or at least an hour; it was an

interview I will never orget. Understandably, the act that she



journalist who shared a gracious act o kindness and changed my

lie orever.

d

Natarsha Belling is a weekend and morning news presenter or en News, and is one o the best-known presenters on Australian

television. She has won many awards or her work, including the Heart Foundation’s Excellence in Journalism Award and also Te Juvenile Diabetes Foundation’s Award or Outstanding

Reporting or her coverage o ype 2 diabetes.



Eric Bailey, Former NBA Player with the Hobart

Devils, Melbourne Tigers, and Gold Coast Rollers

Abandonment to Abundance

In the early months o 1960 two perectly healthy adults had a

vision o conceiving a healthy child who would one day achieve

great things, maybe win an NBA championship trophy or become

heavyweight boxing champion o the world. Light years ahead o

her thinking, the mother-to-be had even bigger goals and dreams

or her child. She saw her son becoming president o the United

States o America.



long ater being abandoned by his parents, the little boy was

introduced to a couple who wanted a child so badly that they

were unazed by the doom and gloom o the medical proession.Tey looked at the child and saw what could be. Tey gave this

little boy the direction he needed to travel the path to abundance.

Tis child is now a middle-aged man living in Brisbane who

succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, thanks to the love andsacrice o two strangers who became his parents. He played

proessional basketball or ourteen years with the Hobart Devils,

Melbourne igers and Gold Coast Rollers. He now speaks around

the world to youth, corporate and not-or-prot organisations.

Tat little boy is ME!

d

www.ericbaileyglobal.com



Professor Emeritus Anthony Klein,

The University of Melbourne

Mistaken Identity

I count mysel as a third-generation Australian because when we

arrived in Australia in January 1953, aboard the P & O liner SS

Strathnavar , my ather stepped ashore ahead o me. And since my

grandparents had arrived ve years earlier, I can truthully say that

“my ather and grandather were here beore me”.

Now my ather, like all middle-class, middle-European

gentlemen, owned a lovely walking stick. He also had an umbrella



Kew – a middle-class suburb – through the middle o town to

Garden City, then a pretty grotty working-class area, so named,

along with places like Sunshine, in order to entice English migrants.I got o at Station Pier, parlayed my way up the gangplank and

ound Harold, the kindly Scottish steward who had looked ater us

on the voyage rom Bombay. He escorted me to the cabin that we

had occupied and helped me retrieve the two walking sticks, letbehind in the back o the wardrobe. Ater thanking him prousely,

I boarded the bus, back along palm-lined Beaconseld Parade,

with a sense o achievement at having successully accomplished

my mission.

Inside the bus, I was taken aback when an elderly, white-

haired lady stood up and oered me her seat. Ten it dawned on

me: she elt sorry or the poor disabled lad with the two walking

sticks. I elt mortied but when I explained the situation to her



5. Acts of Kindness to Those

Less Fortunate

Libby Gleeson, Author, Sydney NSW

A Surprising Act of Kindness

Tis happened some years ago when my husband

and I were living in England. It was a reezing cold

night, hats, gloves and coats were on and we were

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Kindness in the Formative Years: McCrindle Research

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