Be brilliant. Volunteer your time with community service. 500 hours

Being brilliant often does not take very much. All it requires is a thought or an idea and a little action. Today to inspire you to be brilliant, I have invited a friend of mine to share how she goes about being brilliant and encourages others to as well. Let me introduce you to Samantha from 500 hours. Here is her story. Enjoy x

Two people, one day a week for one year is 500 hours. This is how many hours my friend and I are donating to Kippa Ring State School this year to see how much impact we can have with a small amount of time and a specific focus.

We have called our project 500 Hours.

Ever since I was a little girl my parents taught me that often the best, most fulfilling and happiest times of your life are when you give yourself, your time, your talents away and expect nothing or little in return.

I thank God everyday I learnt this lesson at a young age because as a 28 year old with a fantastic husband who supports and gets involved and two beautiful daughters, one and three, our lives are so full of joy because we choose to give them away.

One of our commitments as a family has been to the 500 Hours Project at Kippa Ring State School.

Why Kippa Ring I hear you say......

Well some things we have learnt so far are:

• Half a dozen year 6/7 students can’t read beyond year 2 level

• More than 50% of prep students have the oral literacy skills of three and a half year olds (or less)

• 78% of students at this school are below the national average for socio educational advantage, meaning that the circum¬stances they are born into are impacting negatively on their educational advancement

• The teachers have great ideas, but zero time to action them which is where we come in.

• The ‘naughty boys’ shine when given a practical task that involves significant responsibility.

Some things we have done so far include:


• Successfully applied for a grant to employ a reading tutor to work one-on-one with half a dozen senior students

• Organised and sourced funds to create a support group for young women who are struggling to connect and have low self-esteem and body confidence issues, primarily as a direct result of disadvantage. This program is called Hula Helps and involves some Hula Hooping fun.

• Worked with a double year 6/7 class one hour a week, every week, focusing on life skills and social capital building to see if that has any impact on those students and their class over the course of the year. Activities have included guest facilitators, a regular gratitude exercise, self-awareness tasks and flood fundraising.

• Facilitated four groups of students to design, plan and run four flood fundraisers. Altogether they raised $1051.05 which was amazing for a school of 400ish students.

• Applied for an Artist-in-Residence grant for Circa to come into Kippa- Ring one day a week in term 3 to deliver circus workshops including aerials, tissue and object manipulation for two.

• Hula hooping classes with some of the Kippa Ring staff after school for a bit of fun, community building and exercise.

We have been at Kippa Ring a total of 2 terms now and feel like there is so much power and joy and possibility when you give yourself away to a place which needs it.

As a society we spend a lot of time analysing what the problems are but little time actioning any of the solutions. If all we do is look at the problems and there are so many it is very depressing!!!

Once you choose to say YES I will get involved, use me, that depression turns into inspiration and anything is possible!!

Getting into my car every Thursday after being at Kippa Ring my heart is often filled with joy and hope because I can see that giving away just one day a week has made such a big difference to me and the Kippa Ring kids.

If you want to find happiness, getting involved and giving yourself, your talents, your time away is a great place to start.

Feel free to check out our project HERE and use it to inspire your own ideas or help support our work at Kippa Ring State School.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and all the best at your attempts to help this world (including yourself) be happier!!! Samantha.

Wow! love what they are doing and creating to help spread happiness.
Here are the 2 ladies behind 500 hours:

Samantha Jockel has a double degree in Human Services and Theology. She has worked as a high school chaplain, peer educator and business trainer. She is well recognised for her work with Biddy Bags, a social enterprise providing income generation for mature aged women via use of their traditional crafting skills. Samantha’s superpower is ‘making things happen’. 

Lisa Burnett has dedicated her working life to sup¬porting young people to achieve their best; helping them to identify and build strengths and recognise that if they want to succeed ‘it’s up to them’. Lisa has high-level skills in project management, grant writing, event management, mentoring, facilitation and design. Lisa’s superpower is ‘attention to detail’.

Thanks so much ladies.

You are brilliant and so inspiring!