Tuesday 15 December 2015

Vinnies Present Backpacks of Stationery to Refugee Services
   On Monday 7 December, the St. Joseph Vinnies were able to present to Jettie and Chandra from Refugee Services the backpack of stationery supplies that they had put together as part of this year's Gold Level Project. The backpacks which contained a pencil case of pencils, pens, highlighters and an eraser, a ruler, school exercise books and NZ activity packs containing activity sheets and sheep bookmarks created by the Vinnies  will be given to refugee children who are newcomers in our local community. The Nelson Tasman Youth Workers Collective also supported this project in supplying wristbands, CDs, badges and information as to youth services and support in the Nelson/Tasman region. We hope that these practical items will be of great help to refugee children as they settle into their new schools and life in our country.

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Bookmarks and cards for housebound parishioners
   The St. Joseph Vinnies have been putting their talent to good use by creating bookmarks and cards for housebound parishioners. These simple gifts will be given to Mike Monti who oversees the Ministers of Communion at St. Mary's to distribute to the people they deliver communion to. We hope our gifts will brighten the day of the people who will receive them.

Thursday 10 September 2015

Cards of Encouragement for Filipino Women
   After having the opportunity of working with Jo Watts over the past couple of years first of all through purchasing paper beads created by the Filipino women of the Above Rubies Livelihood Project as Christmas gifts for the women attending the Loaves and Fishes Christmas Dinner and then last year being able to create our own bracelets from the paper beads these Filipino women make, we were honoured when Jo Watts who now lives full time over in the Philippines helping Filipino women asked if we would be happy to keep in touch and send cards of encouragement over to these women. Since Jo moved to the Philippines only a few months ago - she has already experienced two typhoons as well as a number of power cuts. Jo and her husband Geoff have also set up a "family home" where women needing a place to stay can come to. Below are the cards the St. Joseph Vinnies created to send over to Jo along with little gifts of encouragement verses we hope the women will be able to select from to provide them with hope and support.

Monday 31 August 2015

St. Joseph Vinnies present blankets to the Tedz4thekidz Project
   On Monday 30 August, the St. Joseph Vinnies presented Kellie Warren, Beth Hunter and Philly from the Tedz4thekidz project with the baby blankets they had created to put in the snuggle packs they are making up for children who have come out of situations of trauma. We were fortunate to also have Martin and Sam from the Nelson Mail join us for this presentation. Keep an eye out for the article about this in the newspaper.






Sunday 31 May 2015

Food for Families - Providing Friendship and Food
   The St. Joseph Vinnies had a special guest visit us on Monday 25 May when Martin Reading from Food for Families came to talk to us about how Food for Families is providing community meals for people both at the Victory Community Centre and in Stoke. This initiative of helping people in the community who have fallen upon hard times is supported through the donations of local businesses and produce growers who provide donations such as fruit and vegetables to the meals. Martin said that the numbers at Victory Community Centre have grown since Food for Families first began. Martin also stated he couldn't get over the huge need that they came across in the Stoke area, they use to serve the meals from a truck and on the first night in the Stoke community had 60 people turn up with plates in hand to be fed. Now that the Winter months are here the Principal of Stoke School has provided the school hall for the dinner to be served there. Martin describes Stoke as an area of great need.  Food for Families has also been involved in providing lunches at the Nelson Polytech and is establishing another community meal site in the Tahunanui area. The St. Joseph Vinnies had created friendship kits that they were able to pass on to Martin to give out to the community meal recipients. These kits contained:

Candle - to see in the darkest times
Paper clip - to keep it all together
Band-aid - to heal wounded feelings
Rubber band - a reminder to stay flexible
Cotton wool - to cushion the rough road ahead
Safety pin - for the unexpected
Marble - to replace any that may be lost
Eraser - so that you can make your mistakes disappear 
Mint - Above all remember - you are worth a mint!


We had completely underestimated the number of people Food for Families provides for with only making 50 friendship kits and will no doubt have to get busy again making more for those who missed out as the year progresses. 

Monday 20 April 2015

Poppy Banners go up in Nelson Cathedral to Commemorate ANZAC
   The poppies created by the St. Joseph Vinnies in Term 4 of last year, may be a few of the many poppies that now adorn the beautiful banners hanging inside the Nelson Cathedral as part of ANZAC commemorations. The banners put together by the Nelson Creative Fibres Group went up on the 10 April and will remain hanging in the Cathedral alongside the Gallipoli flag after the ANZAC ceremonies. Over 3,000 poppies were contributed to this project. A basket of poppies will also be available at the Cathedral so that people can choose a poppy to take away with them after the special ANZAC commemorative service.



Thursday 2 April 2015

Vinnies Entry into the Wall Worthy Competition 
   The Gold Level Vinnies at St. Paul's School and St. Joseph's School have got underway with their Gold Level project for the year of creating a mural for a childcare room that will be part of a facility for young mothers in the community. After collecting ideas from both the St. Paul's and St. Joseph Vinnies, the ideas were sought through, the best designs chosen and from there two of our very talented artists in the St. Paul's Vinnies group put the final design together to submit into the Wall Worthy Competition. If we are fortunate to be chosen from this area, we will receive Resenes vouchers to cover the cost of the paint and paintbrushes to create our mural along with a television and digital camera which we will be able to donate to the facility. We will be notified early next term as to whether we have achieved success, definitely watch this space.
 

Friday 6 March 2015

On the Wings of Love
   The St. Joseph Vinnies have begun the new year reaching out to the Hospice patients by creating butterfly hearts with messages of love and support on them. They also created cards for the family of a past St. Joseph Vinnie whose father died of cancer over the summer holidays. We hope these small acts of kindness will help the people we are reaching out to know that they are very much in our thoughts and prayers.