Vinnies’ helping hands
We live here ‘cos we love it!
Graham McCarthy
YEP, I’m coming up on 82. I was born here.
With the exception of probably about seven years, I’ve lived here all my life.
When I finished work - I was a quality assurance person at Beef City and I had just on 30 years out there - and when I finished I met a fella who worked here.
His wife used to play tennis with my wife, and I said to him, how would I go about getting a job down here, a couple of days a week.
And he said, I’ll come down and introduce you to Trevor. He was the boss then.
And it went from there. That was about 13 years ago. And so I’ve volunteered since then.
What’s one thing I like about Toowoomba? I’m deeply, I was deeply into football. Junior rugby league. I had a couple of stints as the local president and that sort of thing. I was sort of raised on football from when I was about eight years old. Rugby – either code. It didn’t matter.
Richard Smith
SO I’M retired, have been probably for about four years.
I’ve probably been volunteering for the same amount of time.
What do I enjoy? Just the people, the interaction with people, and it just gives me something to do and you feel like you’re doing something – putting a little bit back into society.
I’ve lived in Toowoomba most of my life. Toowoomba’s nice.
What do I like about it? I’d say the size – it’s not too big, it’s not too small. It’s sort of a big country town, that’s what it is. But that’s changing.
Jean Leslie
I’VE lived here since I was 19. I used to live in Oakey and I had a wonderful time out there and (Toowoomba) just can’t compare with Oakey. I loved it out there.
I’ve been volunteering here at Vinnies for 21 years.
I started off at Lifeline cutting rags – I was employed as a rag-cutter.
Anyway that job expired and I came here and volunteered.
What keeps me coming back to Vinnies? I think it must be morning tea. Oh yes, and my friends, of course.
What’s one thing I like about Toowoomba? – I like shopping here and the people are nice. But you never really get to know anyone in a big town like this.
Dell Murr
I’VE lived here for a long time, put it that way.
I won’t put a number of years on it.
I wasn’t born here – I was born in Mitchell and lived in Longreach for most of my school days and everything.
I moved to Toowoomba when I was about 15.
It was good, I liked it here. I’ve stayed because I married a city-slicker.
I’ve been coming here (to Vinnies) for three years.
When my husband passed away I wanted to be a volunteer – because we had a business and I was wanting to do something with my life.
So I went down to that respite centre for five years and then I came up here, and I love it up here.
What’s one thing I love about Toowoomba?
The weather. I love the weather in Toowoomba because it’s lovely in the summer and nice and cool in the winter.