I live in Tasmania, an island state to the south of mainland
Australia; quite close to Hobart our capital city.
Just before Easter 2018 I
heard a report that our island state was going to experience a harsh
winter. This got me thinking about the homeless
in our community and the effect a harsh cold winter would have on them. Some years previously I had knitted some
beanies and donated them to an organisation called St Vincent de Paul who ran a
Van around lower socioeconomic areas supplying hot soup and sandwiches each
evening.
I was thinking that there is
only so much knitting I can do, and that one person wouldn’t be able to make
much of a difference. I gave the situation some more thought and touched base with
two Neighbourhood Houses I had contact with and put a proposal to them, (Risdon
Vale and Rokeby Neighbourhood Houses).
That we could set up a facebook page called The Great Commuknitty Event
and encourage people to knit hats, beanies, scarves, mittens, rugs, children
clothes and drop them into the Neighbourhood Centres. We would then take these donations and drop
them into a few different places that assist the homeless and those on low
incomes. (We currently have 171 members on our facebook page).
I also shared the details of our Great Commuknitty Event on
Kindsprings website
https://www.kindspring.org/ as I love random acts of kindness, and reading
of what others are doing to spread kindness around the world.
I then sought some donations for prizes for those that
donated, and one friend that I approached offered some vouchers for free bread
through their franchised Bakers Delight Bakery. Everyone who donated was given
a voucher for a free bread loaf each day for one month.
Donations came in and were distributed to a homeless drop in
program that provides showers and washing/drying facilities, a place to relax
and get a hot drink, breakfast, lunch and access to service providers.
Donated items were also distributed to “No
Bucks Café” a church run program in the City which offers a 3-course lunch for
free; Colony 47 an organisation which assists people to apply for public
housing and offers other services to them (debt consolidation and budget
planning) and to The Link which provides assistance to youth between 12 and 25
years of age.
In July I received an email from Kindsprings commending our
Commuknitty Event and asking what we would do with $100 if we were to be
awarded a prize in a kindness contest.
After some deliberation and consultation with Coordinators
at the Neighbourhood Houses and the drop-in centre (Richmond Fellowship
Tasmania) the decision was that the homeless were in desperate need of
essentials such as toothpaste and toothbrushes, shampoo and conditioner,
underwear, socks and razors. I cashed
the cheque and went to a nearby Coles supermarket to check the prices and
quality of items and work out a shopping list. My husband spoke to the manager
and asked if they would be willing to give a discount or throw in some items
for this worthy cause. We were asked to
come back the following Monday with a letter outlining what we were doing, and
they would see what they could do; Coles then gave us a $50 voucher which meant
that we had a total of $170 Australian to buy items for the homeless who use
the drop-in centre.
These items were purchased and donated to Richmond
Fellowship Tasmania’s Drop in Centre; it was lovely to see some people there
putting on clean fresh socks, getting toothbrush and toothpaste packs, shampoo
and conditioner. To most these items are
essentials it was humbling to see the gratitude expressed for items most of us
take for granted.
