THE Rotary Club of Oberon presented former Oberon High School principal Ken Barwick with the Paul Harris Fellowship award at the club’s fellowship dinner recently.
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Mr Barwick was sadly farewelled by community members, staff and students from Oberon High School in January as he took up the position of principal at Denison College Bathurst High Campus.
Mr Barwick's acceptance speech was a reflection of why he so deserved the Paul Harris Fellowship.
He is not just a teacher, but an instrument in training kids to become a better person - in fact, the best they can be.
Mr Barwick spoke of our youth as the hope of the future, encouraging them to look at the world with a new set of eyes, to build capacity, creativity and innovation and to look out for the downtrodden. He also acknowledged Rotary as a partner in what schools cry out for - community collaboration.
In his speech, Mr Barwick also mentioned that when he started at Oberon High School, parents told him "you don't care about our kids, you are only here short term".
Sixteen years later he had climbed the ladder from being the maths teacher to deputy principal to school principal.
Mr Barwick showed students' parents what it meant to "work your guts out" and that "what you mean is what you do".
In closing, Mr Barwick said "this is a really nice award and I appreciate it very much".