Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Springfield can’t contain its generosity, raising $16k for the poor

byEmilie Ng
6 December 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Mother and two children with overflowing collection of recyclable plastic bottles

Changing lives: Sarah Marsh and two of her children, Flynn and Bonnie, from Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish in Springfield, with the overflowing donations for the parish’s Containers for Change project. The parish is donating all refunds of recyclable plastic drinking containers to charities and organisations that serve the poor. Photo: Springfield Parish

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Mother and two children with overflowing collection of recyclable plastic bottles
Changing lives: Sarah Marsh and two of her children, Flynn and Bonnie, from Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish in Springfield, with the overflowing donations for the parish’s Containers for Change project. The parish is donating all refunds of recyclable plastic drinking containers to charities and organisations that serve the poor. Photo: Springfield Parish

PLASTIC bottles that would normally end up in the recycling bins of Springfield homes and businesses have become a tool for local Catholics to raise money for the poor.

Parishioners from Our Lady of the Southern Cross Parish in Springfield, on Brisbane’s west, with help from numerous local businesses, raised $16,000 for returning 160,000 plastic drinking bottles through the Queensland Government’s Containers for Change scheme, which offers 10 cents per refunded bottle.

But instead of keeping the money in the parish, which took out a large loan to pay for the building of a new church, the community has given it away to those who need it more.

Parish priest Fr Mauro Conte said when the Government introduced the scheme, one parishioner saw an opportunity to use the refunds to help charities and ministries that serve the poor.

“We could have used the money to pay off the loan for the new church, but we decided to give it to the poor rather than keep it for ourselves,” Fr Conte said.

The total $16,000 raised was donated to three charities – Catholic Mission received $8000 for its Ghana Church appeal, the local St Vincent de Paul Society conference received $4000, and Catholic grassroots ministry Blind Eye Ministries, which serves homeless people in South Brisbane, received $4000.

For parishioner Sarah Marsh, who is a mother of five children, the project was a chance to give back to a community that ended years of personal soul-searching.

“Initially when I was getting involved in the project, I had just finished the Alpha program and just wanted a way to give back,” Ms Marsh said.

Although she was raised Catholic, Ms Marsh said she “was a little lost”.

“I did the parish’s Alpha program and I had my life absolutely turned around,” she said. “I was struggling for a place to belong and I came out here to Springfield parish and I felt I belonged.”

Related Stories

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

To say thanks, Ms Marsh volunteered her family’s trailer and offered to drop off the plastic container donations to their local refund point each week.

She said the first donation she unloaded amounted to less than $50, but it wasn’t long until that number reached into the hundreds.

“The largest refund we had was for $507,” she said. “That was over 5000 containers that week.”

The parish has received a government grant of $8000 to continue the project in 2020.

The money will be used to buy a trailer, build a shed to store the donated containers, and buy new bins for collecting people’s donations securely outside the church.

Fr Conte said he never expected the community to reach such a large amount in refunds after one year.

“Now it’s becoming a part of the culture of the parish –  people have kept coming to the parish every now and then to donate,” he said. “What’s important for us is that it’s an offering, an ongoing routine for the poor.

“We are dreaming big, and next year hope to reach $20,000.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Where you can visit St Therese of Lisieux and her parents in Brisbane

Next Post

Queensland 2011 flood victim Eddy Delsorte says God’s providence taking care of his family

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

27 May 2022
Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria
World

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia
Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Next Post
Husband and wife look through photos of the 2011 flood damage to their home

Queensland 2011 flood victim Eddy Delsorte says God's providence taking care of his family

St Paul's Book Centre manager Fr Thomas Manimala pulls out a book

Catholic bookshops are pulpits and the pews are getting empty

Former refugee Anthony Gawlu

This former refugee escaped being a child soldier. Now he's training to be a priest

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping