When we first met Charles he was sitting in his car and his wife Celine had brought him along to a session of the Telstra Digital Ambassadors program which teaches older citizens how to use their modern technology. Connecting to the internet, how a smart phone works and getting the most from digital devices.

Marc Bright and I were there with Graeme Baxter from the Suncare Community Services to make a short film about Telstra and Suncare Community Services working together for the betterment of the community at large.

Celine had come along and said she couldn't stay long as her husband was in the car waiting and didn't feel so good after the two hour drive to get to the location. 

Charles and Celine now run the Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre on their property at Nanango, Qld.

So we picked up our cameras having shot most of what we wanted from the main group and headed over the road to meet this fantastic gentleman who was 100 years old. 

We were quite excited, as seeing someone of this age out and about in the community is a somewhat a rare occurrence.

Once we met him and had a chat we thought "what an amazing and inspiring gentleman." And what a story he has to tell. He easily regaled several stories of his war time and youth with amazing recall and when prompted by Celine could transport himself back to specific times and locations to tell us what he was doing and who he was with.

Celine and Charles had told us that he had just finished penning the draft for his memoirs that he has called "The Camouflaged Civilian" because he never really felt like a soldier. We've focused on the overall picture of him being born into uncertain times during WW1, making a life for himself in England then going off to war in WW2 and then ending up across the other side of the world building a Buddhist retreat. By any stretch of the imagination that is about as far away from his beginnings as you could get and certainly nothing that he could have dreamed of.

So now their question was, where to from here? How do we share this amazing story? but they didn't know what to do from here.

Graeme, Marc and I looked at each other and all agreed that his story should be told.

So we had a meeting and decided to offer Charles some help with getting his memoirs published.

At this point we thought that we might also be able to make a short film of him and Celine that would preserve his memories for generations that are at the moment too young to understand. They have a Grand-daughter that is three and would dearly love to share their story with her, but now they feel time is running out and Charles may well be gone by the time she is old enough to comprehend the stories he has to tell.

So here we are...telling the story of gentleman Charles who has literally gone from the Battlefields of WW2 to Buddhism in peaceful Australia.

Our intention

 Our intention is to have his manuscript edited for publication, then released in digital and print format. 

The next goal after that is to make his story into a documentary style presentation, utilizing JoyArts Media and Munden Media and our collaborative team that works closely to make compelling stories using cartooning and animation threaded through real time video and audio of Charles recanting tales of his experiences. The end result will be a story that is punctuated with Charles's humour as well as providing a true account of his life the way he would want his family to remember him.

Madeleine Star, their little Grand-daughter, will have a valuable depiction of exactly what made her Grandfather so special, as well as any future family that may come along.

Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre.

Celine converted to Buddhism a few years ago. Then Charles converted after he realised that he had been living by Buddhist principles most of his life without realizing it. At the time they had built the Rainbow Community Retreat on their property and Celine used to run regular gatherings, workshops and meditations. Once they had both converted to Buddhism the centre then had to evolve too and is now called Amitabha Buddhist Retreat Centre. Celine and Charles were blessed by the Pure Land Learning College of Toowoomba and honored by the Venerable Wu Ling.

The plan is to enable the centre to continue supporting the wider community and any funds extra after publishing will go towards maintenance and upkeep and allow Celine and Charles to continue to positively influence everyone who comes for a visit.

Cost Break down

Costs are only estimates at this stage until we realise the funding.

It is envisaged that the breakdown will be something like this:

• editing $2,000
• printing $7,000
• publishers $4,000
• marketing & distribution $2,000
• video & film production which includes pre and post production, editing, cartooning, animation, formatting, uploading and distribution. $10,000

The video component is in our plans, however our first target is to get the book published first. Once that is achieved we will be able to move into pre-production of the video and any money past our first target will go directly into that.

Time is the biggest challenge and also the lack of funding. Charles is not getting any younger!

As practising Buddhists, Charles, who reckons he's still got things to do, and with Celine they still host retreats on their property in Nanango Queensland and do not ask for anything other than some donation to help with costs of food and essentials.

Their family also live in faraway places in different parts of Queensland and they would dearly love to move to a warmer climate to be closer and also to suit Charles whose body now favours the warmer rather than cooler climate.

In the meantime before they go anywhere they need to establish a system of management to enable the continuation of the great community work they have started.