Students give back to the local community!
Earlier this month, senior students at Mary MacKillop Catholic College invited friends and family to donate food and toiletry items to be created into care packages and donated to Rosies Toowoomba.
Rosies reaches out to those most in need, those people who are abandoned, marginalised, socially isolated within our communities. On The Street Volunteers are asked to commit to 4 hours once a month to outreach. Each volunteer is assigned to a team and each team goes out on to the street once a month. The location is always the same so that our patrons, friends on the street, know where they will be and when.
Students also got together and cooked up over 1200 biscuits, carefully packages into snack size portions, and delivered with a lovely little sticker to seal in the generosity!
A beautiful note from the team at Rosies reminds us of that no matter how small, the act of kindness, generosity and giving, can make a huge difference in someone's life!
Thank you for your call this morning to invite us to visit your College to accept donations prepared by your students for our Rosies service. We were absolutely delighted to meet your amazing students and were overwhelmed by the numerous gifts they had prepared. What an inspiration they are with their generosity and thoughtfulness in the preparation of the gifts for those in need. We have already packed some of the biscuits and know that our patrons will be thrilled to have some home cooked treats to enjoy with their hot drink while they wait for their meal. This is something they seldom have so it will make the next outreaches very special! Thank you to everyone who spent so much time in the kitchen - the Master Chefs of the future - what a wonderful array of biscuits you have prepared. We know we can pass on the thanks of all our patrons as they enjoy this unexpected surprise.
Thank you to all of the school community for the gift of the personal care packs. They are carried in the Rosie’s van at every outreach and we know what a difference it makes to the lives of those who are living rough, it is a blessing to have the necessary items to be able to shower which helps to restore their dignity, something we often take for granted.
Like all of us, our patrons have a need for human contact, acceptance and friendship with others and our Rosies service attempts to fill this gap by being what our motto challenges us to be, and that is simply to be a “friend on the street”. Our street outreach offers unconditional acceptance and friendship to all. A sense of belonging where our patrons know that they will be welcomed and treated with dignity and respect as we share time together. It doesn't matter how rugged the individual, we all yearn for human contact and belonging, for friends who are willing to share our journey. It is a privilege to walk beside those who struggle with challenges every day. Everything that is donated to Rosies is used for the care of our friends on the street to assist in making their life a little more comfortable. It is often the small acts of kindness and the knowledge that others care that restores faith and hope to their world.
On behalf of our Rosie’s service and our friends on the street, I wish to extend our deep gratitude to all the students, parents and teachers at the school for your kindness and generosity by providing us with some of the essentials that we use constantly for support for those in need.
It is only together that we can make a difference!
We are deeply appreciative of your wonderful generosity and wish you blessings for a year filled with successful studies and the joy of friendship with each other.
Kind regards
Jim & FayRosies Toowoomba
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