THE wonderful work of St Vincent de Paul in Orange is legendary and generally the people of Orange respond in a positive way, ensuring there is a constant supply of saleable goods.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
These items for sale not only offer affordable options to people, but are a way of raising funds for welfare programs run by the charity.
So it must be a continued source of disappointment to volunteers when confronted with the mess of toys clothing and household items strewn across the footpath and pulled down from the top of charity bins .
Like many charitable institutions across Australia, St Vincent de Paul is faced with the challenges of people stealing from their bins and outside their shops or leaving broken toys or dirty clothes for volunteers to clean up.
St Vincent de Paul staff members have taken a number of initiatives over the years to discourage people rifling through the donated goods and this includes the installation of CCTV cameras.
However even this has not proved to be a deterrent.
Neither has a regular appeal for people to be thoughtful about what they leave outside the shop and sometimes contaminating bins.
So you really have to admire the latest initiative of St Vincent de Paul where a dedicated team of weekend volunteers will be on duty to collect items and take them inside as soon as possible.
However the downside of their volunteering has to be the mess which confronted them on Sunday morning, with bags and boxes ripped apart.
These people are to be commended - they work full-time during the week with the only opportunity to volunteer coming at weekends.
Although there are many in the community who are spoiling it for others by leaving rubbish and pilfering from the charity and being too lazy to drive to the tip, the positive side to this annoying issue is the dedicated volunteers who are prepared to turn up on their weekends to sort it all out.
