Michael Horth was just 20 when he started volunteering for the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“I’ve been with them for 50 years,” he said this week.
Mr Horth is now the Orange regional president for Vinnies and is the administrator of the Energy Accounts Payment Assistance [EAPA] scheme to assist needy people pay their power bills at a time of soaring costs.
Along the way he said he had been involved in a variety of volunteer roles with Vinnies.
They included helping “the working poor” afford a holiday and assisting parents with school fees.
He is now in charge of about 50-60 volunteers across the Central West from Blayney to Cowra.
“We’ve got bank managers, ex-school teachers like myself, ex-social workers.”
Mr Horth taught at James Sheahan Catholic High School for 25 years.
So what drives someone to continue to volunteer to help others out?
“The people who come in here are generally trying to help out their family.
“But everything has got too much for them.
“It really grounds me.
“You really know how bad some people’s lives have become.
“A lot of them have done nothing wrong.”
Mr Horth said often circumstances changed people lives for the worse and they battled on, with assistance from Vinnies.
He said soaring electricity and gas bill prices had hit many people hard in Orange.
He went through a pile of power bills on his desk from people needing welfare assistance in Orange to avoid having their power cut off.
“I have had people come in the last week with a bill of $3000.
“And there was another one for $6000.”
He said failed relationships often left one person carrying the load, being hit with disconnection and reconnection fees [$150 each time] as their debts mounted.
Mr Horth said some had their debts sold to collection companies which made their lives harder as they got hounded for the money.
He said many needed guidance on how to use power wisely to reduce their bills.