Image: Isabel Gaines with Gemma Miller, Stars Coordinator for Graeme Dingle Foundation Marlborough – with one of Isabel’s Tracker Journals
In December 2021 The Sun highlighted the innovative and creative efforts of Marlborough Girls’ College student Isabel Gaines.
We’re delighted to update you with how her journaling project panned out.
Having discovered the benefits of journaling for herself, in 2021 Isabel launched a journal (or “Tracker”) for fellow students to benefit too.
“I found it keeps me calm, stops my mind from going 100 miles an hour, trying to think about what has to be done next,” she explains.
As a Stars student herself in 2021, Isabel decided to ‘pay it forward’, donating $2 from the sale of every Tracker to local charity, Graeme Dingle Foundation Marlborough – who run the Stars programme at Marlborough Girls’ College.
Her Trackers included many productivity and prioritising tools, with a dose of relaxation and mindfulness options in the mix – all very much in keeping with the lessons they learn in the Stars programme.
Sales of the Tracker went well, especially in the lead-up to Christmas, with many customers noting it was an ideal Christmas present for the young person in their life. The initial print-run was sold out by the start of the school year, barring a last few journals which Isabel kept aside for the Graeme Dingle Foundation to donate to some of the students they work with.
Isabel’s efforts have resulted in nearly $400 being donated to the Foundation.
Stars Coordinator for Graeme Dingle Foundation Marlborough, Gemma Miller was “rapt”.
“It’s incredibly heart-warming to see our students engage in ‘giving back’ like this. Isabel’s efforts will not only help all those who now have a journal to stay on top of things and feel less anxious – but it will also help future students benefit from our programme too! We’re incredibly proud of Isabel for helping make the world a better place.” At this stage Isabel doesn’t have concrete plans for a 2023 version, but she is “thinking about it,” she admits.