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The Nelson Photo News

 

45

A New Life at Sunnybank

Twenty years ago, in 1943, the Sisters of the Mission walked into their new home at Sunnybank to continue the work their order had been engaged in for 40 years at the present convent at Manuka Street - the caring for and the education of boys. Today the work goes on as it has done for 60 years. Motorists using the Nelson-Blenheim highway know full well the big buildings that constitute the home, and in the summer well-kept gardens that are a blaze of colour against the green of the hillside. In these buildings, five sisters and a priest tend to the material, educational and spiritual needs of up to 50 boys between the ages of 5 end 15. The home is not, as many people believe, an orphanage. By far the greatest number of boys there are from broken homes, and although most of the boys there are Catholic, there have been, and still are, boys of other denominations.

The home stanas in 45 acres of farm and agricultural land and part of the boys' leisure time must be devoted towards helping the home to support him, It is entirely self-supporting. The vegetables are grown and the 13 milking cows and sheep help also to make the home self-sufficient.

This series of pictures were taken for us by John Peterson,

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Sunnybank as seen by the motorist

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Growing boys have big appetites

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Fun on the see-saw

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The boys take turn at serving at table

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And after dinner, those molars must he cleaned

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In the lovely little chapel the boys practise their religion

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There's little off-duty time for the hard-working sisters.

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But the boys love their footie

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"Ho hum, and so to bed."

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Nothing better on a wet day than squatting in front of a radiogram

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And there are lessons too, in bright, airy classrooms

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Here's a dog with plenty of cobbers