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Red frogs at schoolies

12:09pm Sunday, 27th November 2011  

By Joshua Maule

More than half of the revellers at Schoolies weeks on the Gold Coast this year will hail from Christian schools. And standing among the wash of alcohol and parties are the Red Frog Crew, offering a non-judgemental Christian witness. Holding bags of lollies donated by Allens - 10.1 tonnes of them - some 1300 “froggers” act as guardians at the coming-of-age event. “The guys,” says founder Andy Gourley, “are super popular. It’s like you’ve just won Australian Idol to walk out on the street in a Red Frogs shirt.”
They escort people back to their rooms, cook batches of free pancakes and take opportunities to talk about life’s biggest questions. The goal is to “safeguard a generation, by serving a generation”.
Many ex-students know of Red Frogs even before arriving in Queensland. Since it began in 1997, the movement has spread fast. It now includes university halls of residence, music festivals and has branches overseas. “I believe that people might not do what you say, but they might do what you do,” Gourley says is the philosophy.
It first got legs when he was working as a youth leader among skateboarders at Citipointe Church in Brisbane and visited the Gold Coast to check up on the senior youth group who had gone to Schoolies.
Seeing “30 000 down there running amok” Gourley says he “foolishly” offered a hotel owner some help.
Large nods and free accommodation were thrust his way and he returned with 17 helpers the next year. Initially the team battled suspicion as they approached Schoolies under the name “hotel chaplaincy”. But with free red frogs, they were accosted from all sides. Today the Red Frog Crew are well-regarded. Aside from a small minority using hard drugs, most Schoolies open their hotel rooms to the “froggers”.
Last year a nation-wide hotline which intoxicated teenagers can phone to order a “walk home” received more than 8000 calls.
While the team hold up a positive influence, there is no denying Schoolies has a very ugly side. Alcohol poisoning, “date rape” and suicide attempts are not foreign. But the team assist rather than proselytise. “When you’re in a pool of vomit,” says Gouley, “you don’t want someone judging you, you want someone helping you.”
During the week of sleepless nights, Red Frogs volunteers become a “sounding board” for the year 12 leavers. “For ninety five percent of all the guys we work with it’s really just cleaning up vomit and walking them home,” says Gourley. “But then there’s all those ones who want to have a good chat about God.” As many as 60 percent of the young revellers are from Christian schools., according to the team.
 The Red Frogs teams find many wrestling with life’s ultimate purpose. Some even return as “froggers” down the track having connected with their local church.
“It’s not a Bible bashing approach,” Gourley says. “It really does put off a generation that’s been bashed around the head with stuff.” Instead he says the Red Frogs volunteers are just themselves. Conversations inevitably come up. “It’s very natural,” he says.
The Red Frogs hotline is: 1300 557 123