Orange’s St Vincent de Paul Society branch is looking to trade up to a bigger warehouse with the volume of donations making storage difficult.

Of course there’s great comfort to be drawn from the fact that Vinnies’ Orange storehouse is now packed with items which can be sold to raise funds to help people in need.

Such strong community support is something we can all be proud of.

Sadly as demand continues to increase our generosity is needed even more.

During a 12 month period more than 4800 people sought help from Vinnies alone.

Nearly 1900 of those people were seeking help for the first time. 

We know the other charities in Orange are feeling a similar growth in demand for their services.

While most of us consider ourselves extremely lucky to live in a prosperous city such as Orange, these new statistics are truly terrifying.

While these numbers cover the entire Bathurst Diocese, of which Orange is part of, the skyrocketing need for assistance should be ringing alarm bells in state and federal government offices.

The community is already doing its bit by donating plenty to all of our charities but in many cases there are several generations of families finding it tough to make ends meet.

As the cold weather settles in, and all the charities, including Vinnies, are calling out for assistance now’s the time to see what we can all do to help.

Don’t wait till winter’s over to donate blankets, doonas and warm clothing.

If you have nothing to donate maybe you should head down to Vinnies big garage sale.

The proceeds of the sale will be used to help the less fortunate members of our community.

Toys, kitchen and homewares, furniture and even surplus shop fittings from Myer will be on sale.

Vinnie’s warehouse supervisor Melissa Stewart said there would be around two to three stores worth of goods which would be priced to clear.

“We’d love to see hundreds of people and would love to see all the stock cleared,” Miss Stewart said.

The garage sale kicks off at 9am on Saturday July 8 at 2 Corporation Place.