Hand of Hope
Story by Haley
and down and inside out. PolygonPat and
classmates had noticed that Hand of Hope seemed
to have a deep feeling of sadness a lot of the time.
PolygonPat was concerned and decided to talk to
Hand of Hope one lunchtime. Hand of Hope felt
amazed and speechless. It was unexpected to find
that someone really cared. "What's the matter?"
asked PolygonPat. Hand of Hope paused for a
moment, then suddenly replied "I just feel worthless.
I can't see light in my life. I feel helpless and
hopeless. I know this feeling isn't right but I am so
lost. All my dreams seem to come to nothing. I have
no motivation to even find enjoyment in things. I feel
like I am nothing".

The bell rang. All the students piled back into class.
Teacher Symmetrical Malady called the class to
attention. "This afternoon we're going to make a
dream quilt." PolygonPat's hand shot up into the air.
"What's a dream quilt?" "You write down your dream
onto a sticky label and then you place it on this large
piece of paper that's on the wall in front of the class.
Eventually it will make a quilt," replied teacher.

Hand of Hope's dream was to be a postcard and
travel the world and create a worldwide awareness  
about depression. After the quilt was finished and
much class discussion had taken place PolygonPat
and classmates got together with their teacher and
decided to help Hand of Hope's dream come alive.
They came up with the idea to have a special,
national day on June 6 every year to highlight
children's depression. The class decided to call the
day Triple-D-Day (Defeat Depression Day) and use
Hand of Hope as the hand of the day.

Triple-D-Day finally came. Hand of Hope arrived at
PolySchool dressed differently. Hand of Hope
started to feel enjoyment and was happy to be at
school and be part of the action. To help Hand of
Hope realise the dream, the class combined to do a
drawing of Hand of Hope and turned it into a
postcard. The whole class wanted to extend a 'hand
of hope' across the world. Their desire was that
anyone could colour in  Hand of Hope and hand it on
to anyone, anywhere, anytime, where the hand could
deliver a simple message of hope and friendship
that somebody cared enough to offer a hand in hope
to defeat depression. The whole class became very
excited as Hand of Hope's dream finally became a
reality.
hand designed by youth at Castlemaine Continuing Education