Birthdays are wonderful times and a great family opportunity. One of the sacrifices that our boarders make is that often they spend their birthdays away from home. We do our best to help celebrate a birthday with the boys by organising some soft drink and special desert for them at dinner to share with their table.

For Rhys Orman (Narrabri) some sickness saw him spend his birthday in bed in the Health Centre. This, however, was not going to stop us from helping him celebrate this special day. Rhys’ parents had organised a surprise cake for the boys up in the dorm … with Rhys in bed, we took the cake to him. Seeing his face light up as the boys in Dorm 8 marched down the hallway of the Health Centre singing happy birthday was simply priceless!

So although not ideal, I suspect that with some presents and cards that arrived in the mail, a chocolate mud cake by his side and some great friends joining him at his bed-side, Rhys is likely to remember his 12th birthday for some time!

Photo: Joseph Canning (Wentworth Falls), Matthew Mackenzie (Sutton Forest), Mackinley Croft (Port Hacking), David Kidd (Connells Point), Bill Farrugia (Coonamble), Edward Fay (Castle Cove), Damian Sevil (Narrabri), Andrian Ang (Artarmon) and Andrew Rice (Oxley) help Rhys Orman celebrate his birthday.