CHRISTMAS will be a lot brighter for many Queenslanders be-cause of the support Catholic school students throughout Brisbane archdiocese have given the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Brigidine College, Indooroopilly, St Vincent de Paul Society conference president Myra Mathews said the Christmas appeal was part of the students’ regular activities each year.
“We’ve been encouraging all 600 students and their families to donate over the last term and we’ve had a really positive response,” Ms Mathews said.
“Lots of people are struggling due to the global financial crisis and appeals like this are an easy way for everyone to give a little.”
She said during the final school term hundreds of items of Christmas food and fun were collected and would be distributed through the St Vincent de Paul Society at Inala.
“Coordinator Leasa Horn will handle the distribution with her team of hardworking volunteers.”
At Mt Alvernia College, Kedron, students delivered 67 laundry baskets full of food items, gifts and Christmas goodies to the Vinnies Little Flower Conference at Kedron.
Mt Alvernia teacher Alison Stone said students loved the Christmas appeal.
“The girls always respond with open hearts,” she said.
Some of the Mt Alvernia girls will also be out helping deliver the hampers closer to Christmas day.
Girls from St Mary’s Col-lege, Ipswich, collected 50 large laundry baskets of gifts and non-perishable goods for the local St Vincent de Paul Society conference.
Vinnies have been helping the disadvantaged of the Ipswich region for more than a century, and for at least that same length of time the St Mary’s community has supported its work.
From the beginning of Term 4, under the direction of campus minister Jayne Johanson, students and teachers of the college’s 32 pastoral care groups – each comprising 20 students – began collecting small gifts and non-perishable goods.
Mrs Johanson said the student contributions had exceeded all her expectations.
In 1995, a special relationship was established between the Kingston Vinnies conference based at St Maximilian Kolbe parish, Marsden, and Our Lady of Mt Carmel Catholic Primary School, Coorparoo.
Since then a special and productive relationship has grown between the two.
Each year the school runs a Christmas appeal that involves classes “adopting” one of the families that Vinnies has identified as needing special help during the Christmas season. Assistant principal for religious education Geraldine Goode then organises through Vinnies for each class to receive a box listing details of the family to be helped.
Students then fill each box to overflowing.
Mt Carmel principal Margo Dixon said the collection was a wonderful opportunity to help pupils understand that many children were poor and that charity was an integral part of being a Catholic.
Kingston conference president Greg McAneney said the conference worked in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Brisbane, and each year its members delivered up to 50 gift hampers to families at Christmas.
“The efforts of everybody at Mt Carmel School helps make the job of the conference so much more enjoyable,” Mr McAneney said.
“With their help, we are able to give the families gifts which would be beyond the capacity of the conference to provide.”
At St Mary’s School, Beaudesert, part of the school’s Year 7 service committee’s role is to help the local Vinnies sort, organise and wrap items for Christmas hampers for families in need.
