Faith and Mission News

In the last few weeks of Term 3, we called on students and families to donate various goods to our Homelessness Month campaign.

It was with great pleasure that we delivered the several thousand items to community services both in Melton and Ballarat.

On behalf of the Faith and Mission Team and all those involved in the campaign, I would like to sincerely thank families for their generosity. Many of the volunteers and services who received the goods were amazed at the breadth of donations and also passed on their thanks to our College community.

We collected a total of 1056 items of clothing that were donated to Vinnies Opportunity Store in Melton adding all types of clothing and footwear to their shelves.

More than 600 new socks, beanies and scarves were delivered to Vinnies and the Soup Van, to be handed out during their weekly service.

We donated 323 tins, to the Combined Churches Caring Melton/Food Bank and Vinnies Soup Van/Community Kitchen of Melton.

Lastly, we provided some of the 1989 hygiene products donated to Combined Churches Caring Melton, St Vincent de Paul, and the One Humanity Shower Bus (Ballarat), with products still left for our Christmas hampers for these services.

It was a very humbling experience to deliver these donations, and below are some of the comments and anecdotes from the community organisations and volunteers who so gratefully received them.

Vinnies Past President Maureen Mohr said a few bags of tinned food, socks, beanies and scarves brought smiles to the faces of visitors to the Soup Van, who were happy take a few little extra treats with them. In particular, one visitor was thrilled to find a tin of beetroot which she gleefully took because she really loved beetroot!

Volunteers at the Combined Churches Caring Melton/Food Bank were extremely grateful for our food donations and hygiene products. The demand for both has been high with food “walking out the door”. They were thrilled with our delivery and said it would certainly keep them stocked for a few more weeks.

The One Humanity Shower Bus (Ballarat) were also thankful for our boxes of hygiene products. They are using these products in the Shower Bus and distributing them to visitors. Read their letter of thanks here.

Elderly volunteers at the Vinnies Opportunity Store in Melton were astounded by the four large trolley loads of clothing delivered in two carloads. I assured them that I had not cleaned out my wardrobe, and after hearing about our campaign, they said our efforts were amazing and that they were truly grateful.