CANOBOLAS Rural Technology High School students heading to Gallipoli next month for the Centenary of Anzac hope to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of what our brave soldiers went through during World War I.
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Year 12 student Andrew Gray and Year 11 students Alissa Meagher, Jacinta Percival and Rebecca Steedman will fly to Turkey next month after they were chosen to attend the commemorations by a community panel based on projects they had completed.
The school was allocated five spots - for four students and one teacher - from a public ballot to send representatives over to Gallipoli.
“It’s the trip of a lifetime,” Alissa Meagher said.
“It came as a complete shock [when I was chosen].”
Alissa’s relatives were involved in various overseas war campaigns, including WWI, while Andrew’s great-grandfather fought in the Vietnam War.
The students will be accompanied by the school’s history-geography head teacher Kirsten Hutchinson, who herself has a long line of relatives who served in the English forces.
“It’s an awesome opportunity,” she said.
Ms Hutchinson said the school has worked to ensure the students and their families are well supported as they head overseas, as for some, it will be their first trip outside Australia.
“It’s a big role, a big job and a big responsibility,” she said.
Ms Hutchinson described the four students as “awesome ambassadors”.
“We have a very strong Anzac culture at Canobolas Rural Technology High,” she said.
The students will be guests at a pre-Anzac Day dinner in Orange on April 14.
While in Turkey, they will each document their experience of attending the dawn service and visiting sites such as Lone Pine
