Vinnies volunteers recognised for providing dignity to those in need

John and Maria Dowling have spent more 15 years volunteering with the St Vincent de Paul Society (Vinnies), offering food, support and dignity to those in need. This King’s Birthday, their dedication was recognised with Order of Australia medals (OAM)—a rare honour for a married couple. But it’s never been about awards or recognition for the couple.

‘We accepted it on behalf of the society,’ John says. ‘Maria got a letter from the Governor General on 31 March, and I said, “Well done, you deserve that.” I got a letter the following day on April Fool’s Day and thought it was a joke.

‘We know people within the society who do a lot more than we do, and that’s why we agonised over it for quite a while before we actually did accept.’

Volunteering in Vinnies op shops wasn’t part of Maria’s grand plan. ‘I always thought it’d be something I’d do when I retired,’ she says. But when John’s health forced him to stop working, she worried he’d struggle with the sudden change. ‘I’d come home and find he’d either be up a ladder or he would’ve thrown good knitwear into the washing machine,’ she recalls.

‘I said to him, “Look, I do love you dearly. It’s not that I don’t want you home, but you’ve got to get into something.”’

John started volunteering with the St Vincent de Paul Society after hearing about the charity at his local parish, St Dominic’s in East Camberwell. ‘He kept saying to me, “Oh, you should join,”’ Maria says. ‘But I felt he needed his own thing. He didn’t have hobbies or interests, apart from reading the newspaper and watching sport.’

His own ‘thing’ became Vinnies, and Maria joined a few years later. ‘Vinnies is a great organisation,’ John says. ‘Now I’m deputy president of Eastern Central Council, which takes in 42 conferences from Hawthorn up to the Yarra Valley Ranges. Each conference goes out locally when they get a call from the call centre asking to go and visit somebody.

We deal with all types, even dual-income families with two cars, kids and still struggling to put food on the table.

‘We’re in Burwood here, but our conference goes to South Melbourne once a week, and we help people in that specific area. We provide them with food vouchers, with Vinnies gift cards where they can go into a Vinnies shop and buy clothing or items that they need.

‘If necessary, we help them with utility expenses. If they have trouble with organisations, we can advocate on their behalf.’

The Dowlings now help everyone from single mothers to families dealing with rising costs.

‘We’ve got two families, single women with nine kids each,’ John says. ‘We deal with all types, even dual-income families with two cars, kids and still struggling to put food on the table.’

Maria knows asking for help isn’t easy. ‘I do often feel that it is a hard thing for people to do, and when we go and visit, we don’t judge,’ she says. ‘It’s our motto really—a hand up, not a handout.’ She explains that some families may need support for months, but eventually they get back on their feet and don’t need assistance.

Calls to our centre went up 30 per cent in the last 12–18 months. We can’t help if we don’t have donations and support.

Other times, they help out in emergencies—mothers fleeing domestic violence, for example.

‘We had one [call] one year on Christmas Eve, after we’d given ourselves high fives because everything had gone out to where it needed to be,’ Maria recalls. ‘The only thing we had for her little one was a xylophone. I kept thinking, “This poor woman just needs peace and quiet.” But it was all we had left that was age appropriate.”

Vinnies relies on donations, long-life food, household items and especially money. Recently, a man moving into care gave them pristine cookware and crockery, and allowed Vinnies volunteers to clear out his whole house. ‘He was more delighted that it could go to specific people,’ Maria says. ‘Single mums who’ve just had babies and are escaping dire situations… they’ve hardly got anything.’

Our members and volunteers put in thousands of hours each year visiting households in need, running food vans and other services ... I really do regard our volunteers as unsung heroes.

John describes lines ‘out the door, down the road and around the corner’ at Vinnies’ Fitzroy food bank. ‘The demands are increasing astronomically,’ he says. ‘Calls to our centre went up 30 per cent in the last 12–18 months. We can’t help if we don’t have donations and support.’

Vinnies major fundraiser, the Winter Appeal, is underway. One part of it, the CEO Sleepout (on 19 June), where executives brave cardboard beds, is expected to raise more than a million dollars in Victoria alone, John says.

Beyond financial donations, Vinnies also needs volunteers. ‘Time is one of Australia’s most precious gifts,’ the society’s national president, Mark Gaetani, said earlier this year. ‘Our members and volunteers put in thousands of hours each year visiting households in need, running food vans and other services for people wanting a hot meal and helping at times of national emergency, such as bushfires and floods.

‘I really do regard our volunteers as unsung heroes.’

For the Dowlings, volunteering is about dignity. Maria remembers a man fresh from prison, staring at empty walls. ‘We were able to help him with goods and with vouchers so he could get himself set up. He was just so grateful. He said, “I just thought I was taking from someone else that needed it more than me”,’ Maria says.

‘But who needs it more than someone with nothing?’