Community & Business
30 June, 2026
Clifton State School Art Show!
Clifton State School’s grade 1s and 2s put on an Art Show last week, opening it up to their ‘Gran-friends’ from Nirvana, in a beautiful display of community connecting.
Maureen-Mary Hains is one of the ‘Gran-friends’ invited to the art show.
The next day, on the 19th of June, she’d be turning 87.
Maureen-Mary came up from Casino a few months ago, moving into Nirvana residential care.
Getting to come down and spend time with the little-ones at the school is one of the reasons she’s now very glad she ended up in Clifton;
“Well it’s so beautiful, I’ve never met such beautiful young children,” she said.
“The other day, my wiggy walker ran down the hill, and there were two young boys who crossed the road, picked it up and brought it back to me.”
The ‘Gran-friends’ were initially greeted with a dance performed by the students, then the visitors were swarmed by their little buddies, first to excitedly say hello, then to be shown the pieces of art the students had been working on.
Maureen-Mary was with her two mates from Clifton State School, Eli and Aurelia.
Aurelia thinks its great having ‘Gran-friends,’ like Maureen-Mary.
“The best thing is that you can talk to them and ask you about things back then, and then you can them about things now,” she said.
“They are just so nice.”
Eli, was showing Maureen-Mary one of his artworks, a spinning top.
“So, I made this out of DVDs and some cardboard and also paper, with 7 sticky tapes to make it spin,” he told the Clifton Courier.
Teachers Sheryl Johnston and Simone Redman run the ‘Gran-friends,’ to create some community sinews.
“A lot of these kids don’t have grandparents, but now they know that there are ‘gran-friends’ available to them,” Mrs. Redman said.
