From serving food to the homeless on our city’s streets, to answering telephone calls at a crisis support service, it seems that Christmas brings out the best in many of us.
At a time when the focus is often on family, friends, sharing and celebrations, a dependable band of volunteers step away from all that and work hard to bring comfort and solace to thousands in need.
Here, we talk to a few people who’ll spend part of their Christmas in the service of others …
A LEADING LIGHT
For the past 39 years, Paul Worsnop and his family have sold candles and programs at Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight service.
This year, seven of Worsnop’s family members will take charge of their usual stall inside the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Worsnop first helped at the event with his parents and brothers when he was 15. He now volunteers with his wife, his 12-year-old son and his extended family.
“It’s a family tradition and it’s something we look forward to every year. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without being part of Carols,” he says.
“I like the notion of doing something good for an organisation like Vision Australia and it’s a very joyful occasion for us as a family. We exchange gifts during the evening and it’s a major gathering for us.”
Worsnop first became involved when his family was part of a community orchestra that volunteered at Carols by Candlelight. When the orchestra later disbanded, the Worsnops continued to sell candles and programs at the event.
“As a kid I remember looking out at a sea of candles as far as the eye could see and that was amazing. One year the TV crew even took me up in the cherrypicker – that wouldn’t be allowed now,” says Worsnop, laughing.
The family arrives at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl at 4pm on Christmas Eve, they collect boxes of candles, set up their stall and serve customers throughout the night. They leave about 11pm once everything is packed away.
“One of my favourite moments is when I hear the traditional carols and the candles are lit,” says Worsnop.
“It’s a very spiritual moment regardless of what your faith is.”
MAKING WISHES COME TRUE
Wendy Jones helps the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal deliver presents to Melbourne’s poor and disadvantaged.
Last year more than 443,000 gifts were donated to the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal and Jones spent many hours helping to collect those gifts. For the past eight years, as customer service manager at Kmart in Corio, Jones put in her own time to encourage locals to donate.
This year she’s doing the same thing in the Werribee shop and she has a very personal reason for dedicating her time to the Christmas appeal.
“From when I was four years old until 10 I was a ward of the state. Mum was sick and in and out of hospital and I was one of six children. Dad was working and my parents loved me but just couldn’t look after us kids,” says Jones.
“So I spent those years in children’s homes and on Christmas Day I’d receive donated presents. I remember waking up on Christmas morning and being given a pillowcase with four or five gifts inside. It made Christmas special. One year I received the very latest Pat Benatar album and that was a really big deal!”
Jones begins planning an appeal launch in September and asks local celebrities and schoolkids to come along. When the appeal is under way she collects and logs the donated gifts at the end of each day and twice a week they are collected by the Salvation Army, who then distributes them to people across Melbourne.
“Every year one lady in Corio bought gifts on special throughout the year and she’d put them away for the appeal. At Christmas she’d arrive with two trolleys filled with presents and kept donating. One year I counted 170 gifts from her alone,” says Jones.
“The highlight of being involved for me is knowing that, every Christmas, this helps someone. I’m just giving back what I was given all those years ago in the children’s home.”
OFFERING A LIFELINE
Monica is a volunteer telephone counsellor with Lifeline. Christmas is a particularly busy time for the service.
On an average Christmas Day, Lifeline receives more than 2000 calls for help from people across the country – all of them feeling lonely, distressed and in need of kindness and understanding.
Monica has volunteered with Lifeline for eight years and she is one of a team of people nationally who provide that much-needed opportunity for people to discuss their fears and concerns.
“I was at a stage in my life when I wanted to give something back. I had more time because my children were older and I’m quite a good listener,” she says.
After a thorough training program that included suicide intervention, role playing and learning how to manage scenarios such as family violence and mental illness, Monica volunteers regularly at Lifeline’s Melbourne centre. She says volunteers are supported through debriefing, supervision and
ongoing education.
When she arrives, she receives an update briefing from the shift supervisor, sits at a desk and computer, logs in and takes calls for a three- or four-hour shift.
“Christmas and the build-up to Christmas are busy but the themes of the calls are the same – they are focused around the losses people experience,” she says.
“At this time of year I think the feelings of loss are more pronounced. There’s such a Pollyanna view of Christmas – suddenly everything should be happy – but that’s not the reality for a lot of people. Christmas instead can remind people of how life used to be or how they’d like life to have been. So people reach out for help.
“When you walk away you have to leave what you have heard behind, but you do hope you’ve made a difference to someone by listening, hearing their pain and empowering them,” she says.
“And you can’t help but reflect on your own life and how fortunate you are. It’s rewarding work.”
CHRISTMAS ALL WRAPPED UP
Since she was a university student, Winnie Wong has been a voluntary gift wrapper at Myer.
While she was completing a double degree in commerce and engineering at Monash University, Wong decided to do something that would distract her from the weight of her studies.
When someone told her about the voluntary gift-wrapping initiative at Myer outlets, which raises money for Vision Australia, Wong armed herself with ribbons and wrapping paper and offered her services.
“My days studying were hectic but I didn’t just want to be head-down in my books and I wanted to do something in my community,” says Wong.
“Gift wrapping fitted in with my studies and it wasn’t stressful. I can meet lots of people, everyone is in a good mood and I love the atmosphere in stores at Christmas.”
Wong received some training from Vision Australia and now does three or four shifts during Christmas. She’s wrapped at Chadstone and Melbourne CBD and this year she’ll be at Myer Doncaster.
“I wasn’t very creative with my wrapping to start with but I learnt how to wrap big presents and tricky shapes,” says Wong.
In a busy four-hour shift, Wong can speedily wrap up to 30 gifts.
“Now I could get a PhD in giftwrapping,”
she says.
SOUL FOOD
For 20 years, Doug Walsh has co-ordinated the St Vincent de Paul Society’s soup vans that deliver warm food and friendship to the homeless.
Walsh was teaching at Assumption College in Kilmore when he brought a group of year 11 students to Melbourne one Wednesday night to meet people who were sleeping rough. The group congregated at the Fitzroy soup van that makes various stops in the city to serve hot soup and sandwiches to those in need.
Soon after that, Walsh became a soup-van volunteer and now co-ordinates the vans that travel throughout the city and inner suburbs every night, including Christmas Eve.
“Volunteers come at 3pm to spend a few hours preparing the food and then at 6.30pm more volunteers arrive to go out and deliver food,” explains Walsh. “We ask volunteers to commit for 12 weeks because then the people on the street build a relationship with the person serving them a meal. I’ve learnt that you don’t always have to give something to someone who is sleeping rough, but at least saying g’day is important. Everyone wants to be acknowledged.”
During the week Walsh joins the vans as they cross the CBD and suburbs.
At Christmas, regulars are invited to a party in a local hall for a traditional dinner and on Christmas Day the vans also provide food and comfort.
“So many people celebrate with family at Christmastime and homelessness is not just about not having shelter, it’s not having that family support. At this time of year, the vannies or soup-van volunteers are the extended families of people on the streets.”
WANT TO HELP OR DONATE?
» www.lifeline.org.au/ For help, call Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14 24/7. If life is in immediate danger, call Triple-0.
» www.wishingtree.kmart.com.au
