Community & Business
6 September, 2022
Good choices wins life’s great race
A RACE car driver has given Grade 7-8 students at Mareeba State High School a chat about the importance of life choices as part of a program designed to make young people think about the consequences of decisions they make.
Touring Car Masters and Jesus Racing driver Andrew “Fishtail” Fisher visited the school last week to talk about relationships, vaping and cigarettes, alcohol, faith and road safety as part of the Life Choices Foundation program which is designed to help youth them understand the choices they are going to make.
“I hope they will have the courage to actually choose for themselves what they want to be and have the courage to step up when things get difficult,” Mr Fisher said.
“I want them to be able to step up and go ‘I’ve thought about drugs or smoking, and it is not for me’ or look at the relationships they are in and be able to say ‘well, this isn’t a positive relationship for me, so I am going to have the courage to walk away’.
“Research shows the 60 per cent of who we are comes from our environment, circumstances and the influences which is usually a choice – I want (the students) to know they have a choice of who they can be influenced by.”
Through his own life experiences as a teenager, who didn’t suit school and made poor decisions that he still thinks of today, he was able to connect with the students and staff on a personal level.
Year 8 coordinator Clint Cifuentes accompanied the students attending the program and was impressed with the engagement from the kids.
He said the program was presented in a “hard hitting informative way” and had changed many perspectives for both stu-dents and staff.
“(Mr Fisher) used a lot of person experiences which really touched a few of the kids,” he said.
“A lot of kids really surprised me with how attentive and well behaved they are – it is a really worthwhile program, and we all got a lot out of it.
“I think the kids were mostly enthusiastic over the race car he bought.”
At the end of the presentation, students were able to get a signed poster and the opportunity to look at Mr Fisher’s racing Falcon XY.
“It is a great school and it was a great connection with the young students and the teachers and the feedback was fabulous from the teachers. It's just a privilege to be able to come in and engage with them in that way,” Mr Fisher said.
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