Street Swags van arrives
May 27, 2011
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Following on from delivery of the Community Barbeque van earlier this year, St Joseph’s Nudgee College has taken delivery of a second new van to assist its work with Street Swags.
Street Swags were able to purchase the van after receiving a grant from the Queensland Government and the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. West Point Auto also assisted by lowering the price of the van to ensure the grant would cover the cost.
Although the van belongs to Street Swags, Nudgee College will keep the van on campus so staff and students can perform various tasks including materials pick up and swag distribution at community events.
The new van has already begun its work in helping those in need after being used to transport swags to the Brisbane Homeless Connect event recently. 100 Street Swags were handed out at the event by Year 12 student Josh Rigg and Year 10 students Ned Carrick, Macabe Daley, Adrian Nave and Thomas Thurecht.
Homeless Connect brings together business and community groups twice a year to give free services to the homeless, those at risk of homelessness and those without secure accommodation. Services available on the day include medical care, legal advice, accommodation referral, personal grooming items and clothes.
Brisbane City Council held Australia’s first Homeless Connect in November 2006. Since then the project has helped over 4,200 people and similar events are now held in Perth, Hobart, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.
Also assisting at the Homeless Connect event were Year 12 students Callum Gribbin, Mitch Peereboom, Alex Treacy, David Steyn, Liam Roberts, and Andrew Coombs who were involved with cooking breakfast on the day. The students also took 2000 pairs of new men’s underwear for distribution thanks to donations made by fellow College students during a free dress day.
“Some schools are asked to contribute food or clothing for the event,” said Director of Campus Ministry Mr Matt Kearney.
“This year Nudgee College was asked to consider donating some men's underwear. As you would imagine, most other clothing can be recycled, but relief organisations can have trouble getting new underwear. Realising that it would probably be difficult to have boys bring underwear into school as a donation, we decided to use funds from the free dress day,” he said.
Nudgee College has assisted at several Homeless Connect events as a result of the College’s community assistance programs.
“We are invited to Homeless Connect because we are part of a network of schools and communities services that link in with the City Council's Access and Equity Team,” Mr Kearney said.
“These schools provide a range of services which include Big Brekkie and Big Barbie but we are also asked to get involved in other community development projects such as Zillmere Library Homework Help and other things from time to time.”
