Lincoln jumps in to help 'Schoolies'

The Salvation Army Stafford's Lincoln Mellors, left, and fellow Red Frogs crew-mates Jamie, Riverlife Baptist Church, Madeleine, Bracken Ridge Baptist Church and Ruzow, Riverlife Baptist Church  at "Schoolies" on the Gold Coast.

By Darryl Whitecross

Volunteers with Christian organisation Red Frogs need to be quick-thinking and resourceful when it comes to keeping thousands and thousands of "Schoolies" revellers on Queensland's Gold Coast each year safe and sound.

Lincoln Mellors, who is part of our faith community at The Salvation Army Stafford, has volunteered with Red Frogs for several years and remembers the time he had to push a "Schoolie" in a supermarket shopping trolley to seek medical assistance.

Lincoln said the "Schoolie" earlier had been given the 'all clear' to leave the Emergency Tent after having received some treatment for concussion and was being accompanied (by 'Frogs') back to her accommodation. "We walked her half a block (until) she felt she could no longer walk and started feeling dizzy. We placed her into a shopping trolley to get her back to the ET."

The initiative – and subsequently Red Frogs Australia – was introduced in 1997 by Andy Gourley, the then youth pastor at Citipointe Church in Brisbane, who saw first-hand the need for "a designated sober person" to be part of the many inappropriate situations that developed during "Schoolies" week. 

Lincoln has again signed up to be a Red Frog volunteer which provides invaluable support and safety to many Year 12 students "celebrating" the end of their graduating.

He said that, amid the sad situations, there were plenty of light-hearted stories that came out of the experience each year along with the predictable revellers being locked out of apartments and dead mobile phones batteries.

Often those long waits until keys arrived or phones were sufficiently charged provided the "great bonding exercises for us as frogs" to show empathy and active listening to young people opening up about their lives.

"Schoolies" is a week-long "event" each year where Year 12 students party at various intensities and locations and/or relax after having finished their final year of school study. It is most often accompanied by excessive consumption of alcohol and other substances and situations often get out of hand having the potential to alter the direction of a young person’s future.

"Frogs" act as the eyes and ears in accommodation venues and out on the streets, providing a positive peer presence to the revellers.